At the Eve of Change
by mlr96
Summary: She can't save everyone. That was the rule and she always knew that. But things got complicated and as she's stuck on Earth, pretending to be Harold Saxon's daughter, Eva starts questioning what this rule truly means, and what would be the price she'll pay for breaking it. Part 2 of the BedTime Stories series.
1. The Mind Churns

**A/N:** **I know I was supposed to post this four days ago but, in my defense, I spent three of those days sick and the fourth at the engagement party of my boyfriend's best friend.**

 **As it is, here's the first chapter to the second part of this series - tell me what you think!**

* * *

 _"The Footprint," the Doctor told Martha as he saw her running to him. "It's a gravity pulse. It stamps down, the rocket shoots up – bit primitive, it's gonna take the both of us to keep it stable."_

 _"Doctor, it's the Professor," Martha said, looking scared. "He's got this watch, he's got a fob watch, it's the same as yours," she added, making the Doctor turn to look at her. "Same writing on it, same everything."_

 _"Don't be ridiculous," the Doctor said. Yana couldn't possibly have a fob watch, he just couldn't. If he had, then…_

 _"I asked him, he said he's had it his whole life," Martha went on._

 _"So?" Jack asked. "He's got the same watch."_

 _"Yeah, but it's not a watch," Martha corrected. "It's this chameleon thing."_

 _"No, no, no…" the Doctor muttered. "It's this… it's this thing, this device that rewrites biology… changes a Time Lord into a Human."_

 _"And it's the same watch!" Martha insisted._

 _"It can't be," the Doctor repeated. Which Time Lord could have survived the Time War? Which of them could it be?_

 _"That means he could be a Time Lord!" Jack called out. "You might not be the last one!"_

 _"Jack, keep it level!"_

 _"But that's brilliant, isn't it?" Martha questioned._

 _"Yes, it is, course it is!" the Doctor muttered. Another Time Lord… just the thought of it was… terrifying. "Depends which one," he added. "Fantastic, yeah." There could be more. He might not be the last of his kind and if one Time Lord survived… how many others could have? "But they died, the Time Lords, all of them, they died."_

 _"Not if he was human!" Jack noted._

 _"What did he say?" the Doctor asked, before all but screaming at Martha when she didn't reply, "Martha, what did he say?!"_

 _"He looked at the watch like he could hardly see it," Martha stuttered out. "Like… that perception filter thing."_

 _"What about now?" the Doctor asked. "Can he see it now?"_

 _"If he escaped the Time War, then it's a perfect place to hide," Jack said, running towards them from the other side of the corridor. "The end of the universe!"_

 _"And think what the Face of Boe said!" Martha added. "His dying words! He said…"_

 _Martha trailed off but the Doctor didn't need the reminder as he turned he last notch to make the rocket fly, before looking at the screen, where the letters of the Professor's name were displayed to him._

 **Y** ou **A** re **N** ot **A** lone.

 _"Lieutenant, have you done it?" the Doctor called into the radio. "Did you get velocity? Have you done it? Lieutenant, have you done it?"_

 _"Affirmative," the Lieutenant replied. "We'll see you in Utopia."_

 _"Good luck," the Doctor said, turning around and starting to run back towards Yana's lab. "Eva's alone with him!" he called out to Jack and Martha. "Eva's alone with him, and she was scared…"_

 _"Do you think she knows who he is?" Jack asked._

 _"I think she does," the Doctor confirmed. "And that knowledge was enough for her to have a panic attack." He headed towards the door, only to have it slammed down right in front of him. "Get it open!" he screamed at Jack, aiming his sonic screwdriver at the systems in the hopes something – anything – will happen. "Get it open!"_

 _It took a moment but eventually, the Doctor found the right setting. He didn't even wait for the door to be completely open before running through it, a single thought in his mind._

 _Eva._

 _They ran, intent on taking the fastest route to the lab before noticing a group of Futurekind standing in front of them. Quickly, he turned around, stretching his mind in the attempt to think of another way to get to the lab._

 _"This way!" Jack called, taking a sharp turn and the Doctor followed him, finding himself in front of yet another locked door._

 _"Professor!" he called out, taking out his sonic screwdriver once more. "Professor, let me in! Let me in! Jack, get the door open_ now _!" he ordered. "Professor, where are you? Chantho, are you there? I need to explain, whatever you do, don't open that watch. Eva? Eva, can you hear me? Eva!"_

 _"They're coming!" Martha screamed._

 _"Open the door!" the Doctor called out. "Open the door, please! I'm begging you, professor, please listen to me! Just open the door, please!"_

 _Jack slammed the handle of his gun on the lock, effectively breaking it and allowing them to walk into the room. For a moment, the Doctor could see the terrified look in Eva's eyes before Yana pulled her into the TARDIS._

 _He tried opening the door, first with his key and later with the screwdriver but Yana must have locked it from the inside, since nothing seemed to happen._

 _"Let me in," the Doctor called out, banging on the TARDIS doors. "Eva! Eva!" He could hear Martha and Jack talking behind him, but their words held no meaning in his mind. If something happened to Eva… it was all his fault. "I'm begging you," he all but screamed. "Everything's changed! It's only the two of us! We're the only ones left! Eva! Eva!"_

 _He watched in horror as bright regeneration energy came out of the TARDIS's windows, only brought back to reality at the sound of Martha's scream._

 _"Doctor, you'd better think of something!" Jack called out._

 _"Now then, Doctor," a new voice said from inside the TARDIS. "Ooo, new voice. Hello. Hello. Hello," he said, trying out how the syllables sounded in his mouth. "Anyway, why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me, I don't think!"_

 _"Hold on," Martha said, looking up. "I know that voice."_

 _"I'm asking you really properly," the Doctor begged. "Just stop. Just think!"_

 _"Use my name," the voice said coldly, and the Doctor felt a tightening in his chest as he spoke again._

 _"Master," he almost whispered. "I'm sorry."_

 _"Tough!" the Master called out, and even before the Doctor heard the TARDIS's signature whooshing, he knew what the other Time Lord was going to do._

 _He took out his screwdriver, trying to remember the correct setting when a piercing scream cut through the air._

 _"Doctor!"_

 _It felt like a thousand knives were cutting through his hearts at the sound of Eva's voice but he ignored it as he aimed his screwdriver at the TARDIS, sabotaging the navigation systems._

 _"Doctor!" Eva called out again. "Doctor, please! Please!"_

 _The Doctor could feel, more than see or hear, sparks coming out of the TARDIS console as what he did was complete. Eva kept screaming for him in the background, but he didn't know what he could do other than hope for her necklace to take her away._

 _"Oh, no you don't!" he heard the Master calling. "End of the universe. Have fun. Bye, bye!"_

 _"Eva!" the Doctor called, realizing she was left alone with the Master now. "Eva!"_

 _"Doctor!" Eva screamed back. "Doctor!"_

 _The TARDIS disappeared from sight and the Doctor was left looking at where it was just moments earlier, his throat dry and Eva's voice ringing in his ears._

 **EMH**

Eva was lulled back awake by a soft hand that played with her hair. It felt nice, she thought to herself, the long fingers twisting a curl gently and massaging her scalp. She sighed in content, pressing her head closer to the hand and as the other person chuckled lightly, an understanding came upon her.

 _This was not the Doctor's chuckle._

She jerked awake, jumping out of her bed and falling to the floor. Pain came from her elbow as it made contact with the floor and when she reached out to check the wound, she discovered she was wearing significantly less than she was when she passed out in the Console Room.

"Calm down," the Master said. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Forgive me if I find that hard to believe," Eva snarled, pulling her blanket off the bed and using it to cover her body. "Where are my clothes?"

"I took them off when I put you in your bed," the Master replied. "Don't worry, I didn't touch your undergarments. I did try to take off your socks but you are, apparently, very ticklish. Who knew?" he added with a small smile.

"Get out of my room," Eva said.

"I'm not here to hurt you," the Master repeated.

"I don't believe you," Eva said once more. "And even if I did, I wouldn't care."

"Why don't you believe me?" the Master asked. "I never did anything to hurt you."

Eva pulled herself up, finally able to look at him without her neck protesting. He wasn't much taller than her – an inch or two, for sure, but certainly not as tall as some of the Doctor's regenerations were. Honestly, when she stood next to Three or Four, she felt like a midget.

It was a lot easier to be intimidating when you could look in the eyes of the person you were talking to.

"You stabbed a sword through my chest," she accused.

"I never meant you any harm," the Master insisted.

"You were screaming 'If I can't have you, neither could he!'"

The Master winced. "I'll admit," he said, "Not my brightest moment."

"What about when you tried to use me to get to the Doctor?" Eva questioned. "Or when you tried to release entropy into the universe, knowing I'll die?"

"That was a long time ago," the Master said. "Things are different now."

"It wasn't that long ago for me," Eva said. "It wasn't even a year ago for me."

"No longer than ten months, I know," the Master said.

"What?" Eva asked, stopping to count back the months since she first appeared in this universe. "How do you know that?"

"I ran some tests on you," the Master explained.

"What?" Eva asked. "When?"

"While you slept," the Master said dismissively.

"You ran tests on me while I _slept_? Do you even start to understand how creepy –"

"Do you intend to let me tell you the results any time soon or are you going to keep questioning the morals we both know I don't have?" the Master asked.

Heat made itself known on Eva's cheeks and she looked down, breaking eye contact with the Master for the first time since she woke up. "Sorry," she muttered.

"It's alright," he replied. "What I was trying to tell you is that the tests results indicated severe malnourishment for the past ten months or so, in addition to irregular hormone levels that suggests uneven sleep patterns, and several infections caused by your lack of ability to keep up regular hygiene habits."

"And in human language?" Eva questioned.

"You rarely eat, and it's affecting your health," the Master said. "You barely sleep, which affects your hormone levels and, in turn, your health. And small cuts that could have quickly healed if they were treated properly and kept clean became infections that would have killed you if it wasn't for the fact that you can't die.

"In short," he concluded, "If you could die, life with the Doctor would have killed you already. And that's without mentioning all of the other life-threatening situations he has the tendency to throw himself – and you – into."

"Is it really that bad?" Eva asked. Of course, she knew her life jumping around the Doctor's timeline weren't the healthiest thing that could have happened to her, but surely it wouldn't have _killed_ her.

"It's worse," the Master said curtly. "Starting today, you'll take antibiotics against the infection. The TARDIS assisted me in setting up a diet that should get you to normal health in about two months and until your hormone levels return to normal, you will take a medicine that will make sure you sleep exactly eight hours a night."

"You did all of that," Eva said slowly, "To help me?"

"I already told you," the Master frowned, "I don't want to hurt you."

"There's a major difference between wanting to keep me alive and tending me back to health," Eva commented.

"Just because that idiot couldn't care less doesn't mean I'm the same," the Master replied. "Now get dressed and take your meds, we have a lot to do and not a lot of time."

"We?" Eva repeated.

"Yes," the Master said, daring her to argue with him. " _We_. The TARDIS landed in London, the day before Christmas of 2006. Harriet Jones is now Prime Minister," he added. "Apparently she made some changes in the economy, I have to say this woman knew what she was doing. Anyway, we need to start making arrangements for our stay here – a place to live, a job –"

"Forged documents," Eva added bitterly. "Neither of us exists here."

"That shouldn't be that much of a problem," the Master shrugged. "I got along with less."

"You were also brainwashing innocent people by the hundreds," Eva retorted.

"I was only doing it by the dozens," the Master protested. "But if it makes you feel better, I won't do it to any more people than I absolutely have to."

"Fine," Eva sighed, knowing it was going to be the best she got from the Time Lord. "What do you want me to do, anyway?"

"Put on something pretty," the Master said. "We're having a day out."

He turned around, starting to leave the room and Eva sighed to herself before realizing what was missing – what had been missing since she woke up.

"Master!" she called out and he turned around, a pleased expression on his face.

"Yes?" he asked.

"My necklace," Eva said. "Where is it?"

"Safekeeping," the Master smirked. "Couldn't have you jumping around now, could we?"

And with that, he walked out of the room, leaving Eva shivering even though the room wasn't cold.

 **EMH**

She wore a simple blue dress the TARDIS provided her with, matched with blue shoes and a small blue bag. As she walked out, she noticed the door was a deep blue colour as well, with patches of amber here and there.

"Look what I found!" the Master called out when she walked through the doors that led to the Console Room. At one of the corners, she could see the Doctor's hand in a jar, but the Master ignored the place her eyes wandered to as he pushed something into her hand. "Apparently, the Doctor keeps a stash of psychic paper in his second drawer."

Eva frowned for a moment, before deciding to drop the subject of the Master going through the Doctor's personal belongings and turning to look at the paper he handed her.

It seemed like a normal ID card, one that she saw people using when she was younger. She was too young to have one when they came out, and it was cancelled before she was old enough for reasons she didn't care much for at the age of fourteen, but now that they were back in the years the cards were used, it only made sense both she and the Master would need to have those.

However, it was the name on the card that made her breath hitch in her throat.

 ** _Surname:_** _Saxon  
 **Given Names:** Harold Ronald  
 **Date of Birth:** 10-07-1970  
 **Place of Birth:** Manchester_

"Harold Saxon," she repeated aloud.

"Harry for short," the Master said. "And one for you," he added, handing her a second paper.

 ** _Surname:_** _Saxon  
 **Given Names:** Eva Merida  
 **Date of Birth:** 04-03-1987  
 **Place of Birth:** London_

"My daughter," the Master smiled. "It will probably take us a couple of weeks to properly forge and submit the documents in order to get real ones, but this will do well for now."

Eva felt sick, reaching out a hand to lean on the console. "How did you know my middle name?" she asked.

"The Doctor has a file on you in his database," the Master shrugged. "You must have told it to him once and he put it in the system. Now, I know your official birthday is on December 1st, but March 4th is when your body will next reach the end of a year cycle of living."

Eva closed her eyes, trying to comprehend what he just told her. He had preformed a series of tests on her body while she slept, that much she already knew, but knowing that not only did the Doctor had a file on her in the TARDIS database, but that the Master read through it? That was too much.

"What else is written in there?" she asked.

"Not much," the Master shrugged. "There's a DNA sample, but so far it's not a match to anything in his systems. Date of birth, full name, references to times when you were referred to as 'The Omniscient' – most of these are still in your future – and percentage of Human at different ages."

"What?" Eva asked, confused. "What do you mean percentage of Human?"

"You didn't know you weren't completely Human?" the Master asked, confused.

"I did," Eva replied, "But why does he needs the data from different ages?"

"He didn't tell you?" the Master questioned. "Really?"

"Tell me what?"

"Your cells," the Master said. "They're constantly mutating – your DNA is constantly changing. Your Human percentage is slowly descending."

Eva furrowed her brows in worry and confusion. "What percent Human am I now?" she asked.

"I don't know," the Master replied. "I'll have to check, but I'm guessing somewhere between 75 and 85, according to the data."

"And what happens when I reach zero?"

"Your file doesn't say," the Master muttered, scanning the data. "The lowest reading I see here is 42 percent… but you still have time until you reach that," he added quickly, seeing the look on her face. "And that timeline won't happen, anyway. For now, let's focus on setting up everything we need for our life here."

"O-Okay," Eva said quietly, taking the hand he offered her without giving it too much thought and taking a couple of steps out of the TARDIS with him before he suddenly paused.

"Did he give you a TARDIS key yet?" he questioned.

"Er…" Eva looked at the Master, confused. "No, not yet."

"Well, seeing as it's going to be our house until we can settle on an actual place of our own, you might as well take this," the Master said, searching his top pocket until he found a key and handing it to her. "Now, we have a lot to do but I think it would be best if we head to the bank first, and maybe the hair salon later…"

He kept talking, but Eva was no longer listening. Instead, she looked at the small object in her hand, swallowing down the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes.

She always dreamed about the day the Doctor would finally give her a TARDIS key. She remembered River telling her, back at the Library, that she could open the doors with just a snap of her fingers, but she knew that having her own TARDIS key meant so much more than that. It meant that the Doctor trusted her enough to give her access to the power that came with the TARDIS, it meant he cared for her enough to invite her into his home – and maybe, one day, make it _their_ home as he always called it in his older bodies.

Yes, she had a lot of dreams of the day she would finally have her own TARDIS key.

But in none of them it was the Master giving it to her.


	2. The Heart Yearns

**A/N:** **I'm back! On time! (For a change)**

 **Fair warning - later in the chapter, there will be a conversation about Christmas customs. As a non-Christian, I have never actually celebrated Christmas myself and so most of what I know is due to online research and asking a friend of mine. Feel free to let me know if you think there's anything inaccurate about my description, and I will fix it right up :)**

* * *

"Eva," the Master sighed from where he stood outside her room, knowing the girl on the other side of the door was hearing every word he said and choosing to ignore it. "Evie, I'm sorry, but we had to do it. Will you just talk to me?" he asked. "You don't even have to open the door, just… just talk to me, Evie."

The day started off so well. They walked out of the TARDIS and headed to the bank to start giving more life to their fake identities. He opened an account for himself, and another for Eva, and transferred enough money for each of them to be able to live several lifetimes with no worries.

They talked, and he could almost see how the protective shell Eva placed upon herself from the moment she woke up that morning was fading away.

She told him of her adventures with the Doctor, and as she retailed the tale of Lakertya, he couldn't help but feel pleased at the Rani's ultimate fate, remembering her hatred towards Eva and noting yet another attempt to permanently kill the young time jumper.

She told him of the people she met, and he was more than a bit intrigued by the fact she met Robin Hood, making a mental note to himself about Eva not only being an apparent natural talent with a bow and arrow, but also enjoying it enough for it to be her weapon of choice when she became something between a ward and a guard of Queen Victoria.

She even started telling him about her life before the Doctor, and an idea started forming in his mind when he saw how enthusiastic she was when she talked about her ongoing undergrad in History.

Yes, all was going well… until they arrived at their next destination. Eva looked from the sign on the door and at him, a confused expression starting to appear on her face.

"You're having a haircut?" she asked. "Why? Your hair looks fine to me."

"I'm not having a haircut, Eva," he replied softly.

"Then why…" Understanding started to make itself known on her features, combined with anger and just a bit of fear. "No."

"Eva…" the Master sighed.

"No," she repeated sternly. "No. You are _not_ cutting my hair."

"I never planned to," he replied honestly.

"Then what _did_ you plan?" Eva questioned. "Straightening it? Colouring, maybe? Why not just go all the way and bleach it?" For the first time since Eva started talking, the Master broke eye contact with her. At the movement, Eva's eyes widened and she took a small step back in surprise and slight horror. " _No!_ "

"Eva –"

"No!" she called out, lowering her voice once again only when she saw a passer-by turning his head to look at them. "No, you are not bleaching my hair like some… like some _bimbo_!"

"I love your hair," the Master said, reaching out towards a strand of it only for Eva to pull her head away from his reach. "I really do. It's wild, and beautiful, and unique. Too unique," he said. "You'll be recognized in an instant."

"I don't want to change my hair," Eva said, the curls in question moving from side to side as she shook her head. "I didn't touch it in years, Master. Ever since I was fourteen – not even a trim!"

By the time she finished talking, Eva's voice was trembling and tears were shining bright in her eyes. Her hair was tucked behind her ears, as if they could act as barriers between the way it was now and what was going to happen to it.

"I'm sorry," the Master said, and he truly was.

But there was nothing else he could say.

They both knew, right from the moment they stopped next to the hair salon, that there was only one way this discussion could end. They both knew that there was no other way – it simply wasn't realistic for Eva to keep her hair the way it was.

Too many people living in this time could recognize her. Jack, Martha, Mickey, Jackie, Rose… Even the Doctor might accidently catch sight of her, especially seeing as her life will be pretty public if she was going to be Harold Saxon's daughter.

She did what was needed from her, eventually. It wasn't like she had much choice, but the Master couldn't help but appreciate the fact that she didn't cause trouble that might attract attention to them. She walked into the hair salon and sat quietly on the chair as the ill-smelling substance was placed on her hair.

When the hairdresser questioned a stray tear that dropped on Eva's cheeks, the Master started worrying, but Eva lied without hesitating, saying she had just gone through a breakup.

"That's the reason for the change," she added, marking at her hair.

"Nothing like a new haircut to get over a guy," the hairdresser said with an understanding smile and added some pink highlights to Eva's hair. "On the house," she told the Master when he tried to add it to the bill. "We've all gone through that at one point or another. Just make sure your daughter remembers it's not the end of the world."

"I will," the Master promised before following Eva outside.

The now-blonde girl asked where they were heading next, and the Master, who decided today was tiring enough for the both of them, told her they were going back to the TARDIS. She made a move to light a cigarette, only for him to take the pack from her and she rolled her eyes at him before starting to head back the way they came.

From that moment on, she hadn't said a word. He tried starting a conversation a couple of times, but Eva hadn't even bothered looking up from the ground as he spoke. As soon as they reached the TARDIS, she walked straight to her room and locked the door behind her.

And it was that seemingly simple act which led them to the complicated situation they were in at the moment.

"Eva," the Master said once more, knocking on the door. "Eva, are you… are you there?"

His hand jumped to his jacket's chest pocket, making sure Eva's pendant was still there. She couldn't have jumped away… but that didn't mean she couldn't have run away. After all, they were still in the TARDIS, and the machine could have easily lead Eva to the Console Room and out the door while he was standing here in the corridor, trying to talk to her.

"Eva, open the door right now!" he called out. "You have until the count of three! One. Two…"

The door unlocked itself and the Master didn't waste time before throwing it open and bursting inside to find an empty room.

"Fuck," he muttered to himself.

If Eva ran away, it would ruin everything. She could've gone to the Doctor, or to any of his companions. She could tell people the truth of who he really was. She could even – Rassilon forbid – go straight to UNIT.

However, before he could start planning the damage control he undoubtedly needed to do now that Eva was gone and think of ways to bring her back before anybody would notice her presence, he noticed two doors on the opposite wall of the room than the one he came through.

Slowly, he walked towards them, hand reaching out and opening the first. He fully expected to see a corridor on the other side of it, and so was more than a bit surprised when what appeared to be a house's backyard was revealed to him.

There wasn't much in the yard – grass, trees, two chairs and a table upon which was an ashtray that gave away the room's purpose. This was Eva's smoking area in the TARDIS, though he couldn't begin to theorise why this was its chosen design. He took a step forwards, looking at the room more closely.

Other than the still-hot stub in the ashtray, there was nothing worth mentioning in the room. No other doors than the one he came through, for certain. That meant wherever Eva disappeared to, she didn't do it through this room. With that conclusion in mind, the Master turned around, not failing to notice that the door he came through was now made of glass through which a living room could be seen, and walked out.

Once out, he closed the door behind him and turned his attention to its sister.

This time, he wasn't as surprised to see his expectations of what waited behind the door were incorrect. It didn't help matters much, as he didn't seem to fully understand what _was_ behind it.

It wasn't a corridor, per se, but it could easily be mistaken as such. As the Master looked around, his eyes found shelves where walls should have been, and books to his right and left instead of stone or metal. It wasn't a corridor, but an isle – a library isle. Setting foot inside the room, he found the floor was covered with a thick rug, and the overwhelming scent of books attacked his nose.

Shaking his head for a moment, his other foot followed the first and he set out in the search for Eva.

It didn't take long. She sat, a book in her hand, at the edge of the swimming pool the Doctor decided belonged to a room full of paper. Though she was still dressed, Eva's shoes rested next to her and her bare feet touched the water, moving back and forth lightly as she read.

The Master paused for a moment, looking at the cinema-worthy scene displayed in front of him, before taking his own shoes off and sitting next to her. He noticed the way Eva's shoulders tensed slightly, but that was the most attention his presence received from the Time Jumper.

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, Eva reading while the Master looked at her expectantly. Eventually, he seemed to realize that if he waited for her to speak first, they will forever be silent, and decided he wasn't going to let that happen.

"What are you reading?" he asked.

Eva didn't respond, not gracing him with even the slightest indication that she even heard his words. He leaned forward, trying to get the name from the cover but only managing to see something about a wardrobe before Eva turned the book away.

"Eva," he sighed. "Will you at least look at me?"

"Can you please leave?" Eva asked tightly. "You're quite disturbing me at the moment."

"Eva, I'm sorry –"

"I know you are," she told him, still not looking up from her book. "It doesn't make me any less angry. You have taken almost any control I ever had on my life, but if there's one thing you cannot do, it's to force me to spend time with you. Leave."

"You know there was no other choice," the Master said. "You understand we had to do it – I know you do. You wouldn't have lied to the hairdresser otherwise."

"Whether or not I understand is not the discussion," Eva bit out. "Just because I understand doesn't mean I'm happy with it. And just because it was necessary doesn't mean you couldn't have given me more than a moment's notice. Since you have decided to kidnap me, we're going to be living together for a _very_ long time – trust me, I know just how long we're going to be stuck together," she added bitterly. "You made sure I won't try to run away by taking my necklace so I'm stuck here with you. But if you keep acting like this, keeping me in the dark about decisions regarding _my life_ , necklace or not, I _will_ leave."

"You…" For a moment, the Master was confused. "That's not why I took your necklace."

"Really?" Eva sighed. " _That's_ what you focus on?"

"This is important, Eva," the Master said. "I took your necklace so you wouldn't _jump_ away, not to make sure you didn't _run_ away. There's a difference. You…" he took a deep breath. "There are a lot of things you don't know yet. I guess for you, this is when it all started, but for me… the thought of you staying because of your necklace never crossed my mind."

"You honestly expect me to believe that?"

"No," he replied simply. "Just like I don't expect you to believe I won't hurt you. I know I didn't give the best impression in the past, but I've changed since. Our… relationship, for lack of a better word, changed since."

"Please, leave," Eva whispered.

"I will if you truly want me to," the Master nodded. "But I'd like you to join me for dinner later today – the TARDIS will show you where. After all," he smiled softly, "It _is_ Christmas Eve."

He stood up and left as quietly as he arrived, leaving no proof that he was ever even there other than his shoes, which still rested next to Eva's. She sighed, placing a bookmark where she stopped reading before placing it by her side. She didn't know what to think of what the Master just said, other than that it seemed to be a longer version of the Doctor's way to say she didn't understand because she was _young_.

But it was the way he said it… it wasn't like the Doctor, who made her feel like she was doing something wrong by not being old enough. The Master seemed to understand she didn't really have much of a choice on the matter and even though it was clear to see he wished for an older version of her, it didn't make _this_ version any less important in his eyes.

He said he didn't take the necklace to keep her from running away. Did he even consider the possibility she'll run away? He must have. He said he wasn't going to hurt her. But he hurt her in the past – he _killed_ her in the past. Could things have changed so much?

From what it seemed, the only thing Eva knew for certain about her 'Relationship' with the Master, as he had called it, was that they were going to spend the next eighteen months together. She would watch as he slowly became Harold Saxon and, pretending to be his daughter, will more than likely be forced to assist him in becoming Prime Minister.

She dreaded thinking any further than that point in time. Yes, Eva was going to be stuck with the Master for a _very_ long time.

The words she told Ian just days ago – could it really be? It seemed so much further away – rang in her mind. _"I love my life,"_ she said. _"Even if only because it's better than living a life I hate."_

This – being Eva Saxon and living with the Master, playing the role of his daughter – was her life for the more than foreseeable future. And she might as well grow to love it, even if only because it was still better than the alternative.

And she would start tonight. Dinner with the Master, getting to know him better and starting to learn just _what_ she meant to him at this point of his timeline.

She stood up, shaking water off her feet before heading back to her room for a shower and possibly a change of clothes, _'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'_ long forgotten next to two pairs of shoes.

 **EMH**

Eva stared at the door in front of her uncertainly, her hand just above the handle as she tried to muster up the courage to open it and walk inside. She knew she was being ridiculous – the TARDIS wouldn't have taken her here if there was danger behind these doors. Well, any sort of danger other than a mad Time Lord with a fixation on her who had killed her once already, and was planning total domination of the universe, that is.

There was no _immediate_ danger behind these doors.

The point was… she wasn't sure she even _wanted_ to go in.

But the Master's words from before echoed in her ears. "It _is_ Christmas Eve."

It was Christmas – her first in this universe and even though the circumstances were less than ideal, she was determined to make it a good one. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Eva opened the door and walked inside.

The first thing she noticed as she walked inside was that the room was nicely decorated. It looked like a living room, not too big as to not appear empty but not too small, either. She was surprised to see a Christmas tree at the corner of the room, but a pang of sadness hit her heart when she saw no presents underneath it.

 _Never mind_ , she told herself. _Christmas is more than gifts. Christmas is a state of mind._

"Eva!"

Eva's head snapped up to see the Master sitting by a table full of more food than just the two of them could eat in a week, not to mention a meal. He was smiling at her, and she fidgeted on her spot, feeling more than a bit uncomfortable at his gaze.

"I'm glad you came," he said, and she could hear the honesty in his voice.

"Didn't really fancy spending Christmas Eve alone," she told him flatly, eyeing the chair in front of him for a moment before sitting down.

"Still," the Master said, smiling slightly. "I'm glad you came. Let's eat?" he offered. "I'm not really sure how this custom works, but from my research it appeared that Christmas dinner should involve turkey, potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and vegetables."

"It should also take place tomorrow," Eva muttered. "But thanks for trying."

The Master's face fell, before a small smile popped on his face. "I could fly us to tomorrow," he offered. "And then we'll eat in the right time."

"No, we wouldn't," Eva sighed. "Never mind, just forget it."

The Master looked at Eva for another moment before looking at the table again. "So, er… food?"

"Yes, please," Eva replied, realizing how hungry she was – she didn't really eat since… well, since she woke up at the Med Bay after passing out from lack of food and sleep. She grabbed the turkey, placing some on her plate before pouring gravy over it. "Could you pass the Yorkshire pudding, please?"

"Yes, of course," the Master said, quickly doing as she asked before looking at the table questioningly.

The look on his face very nearly made Eva burst with laughter.

"Take some turkey and pour gravy over it," she ordered. "Then, you eat the Yorkshire pudding with the gravy, and once that's done you eat the meat with the vegetables."

"That seems like an odd way of eating," the Master commented, though he did just as she told him.

"That's how it was back home," Eva explained. "Gran always made sure to bring duck, as well, since that's how they ate it when she was a kid. But in the end, everybody always ate the turkey and only whoever wanted an extra took the duck."

"I don't think I ever heard you talking about your childhood," the Master commented.

"Well, not much to talk about, is there?" Eva shrugged. "I'm here, they're in the other universe. I'm never going to see them again. It took me long enough to be able to think about the memories without wanting to cry, I don't really feel like talking about it most of the time."

"Would you mind telling me?" the Master asked and Eva hesitated before speaking again.

"There's not much to tell, really," she said. "We were an ordinary family. My parents, an older brother, a younger sister and me. Mum's a teacher. Dad's a journalist. Mike – my brother – was in a band, they used to do shows at the city. Nyssa just started Year Ten when I left. We didn't live in the city," she explained, "But we went to school there. Most of our friends are from there. My cousins lived close by."

"Sounds nice," the Master said.

"It was," Eva replied. "It was nice, and calm… in a world without aliens, where my biggest worry was what was next on the telly. I think I'd go crazy if I have to return there now," she laughed. "But I do miss my parents. Wish I could at least give them a proper goodbye."

"They're not really your parents, though," the Master said. "Are they?"

"They may not be my biological Mother and Father, but that doesn't make them any less my Mum and Dad," Eva said. "They raised me. They taught me right from wrong, gave me anything I ever wanted – as long as it was reasonable, of course. They were the ones who made me the person I am today."

"But don't you ever wonder?" the Master asked. "About your rea – your biological parents?" he corrected. "The ones from this universe?"

"I never felt the need to," Eva shrugged. "I don't care much about my birth mum, seeing as she left less than five minutes after I was born, and I already know who my biological dad is…" Eva trailed off, her eyes widening as she realized the importance of the information she just revealed. "I shouldn't have said that," she muttered.

"You know who your dad is?" the Master asked. "How? Why doesn't the Doctor have it in his records?"

"He doesn't know," Eva replied. "I never told him, I didn't even –" she cut herself before she could say another thing she shouldn't say.

"Didn't even what?" the Master asked.

"Nothing," Eva replied quickly.

"Didn't even _what_?"

"Leave it," she bit out. "Just leave it, Master. It's none of your business."

"I could find out in other ways," the Master said.

"The Doctor has been trying to find out for centuries and he still hasn't," Eva replied. "I'd like to see you try."

"It will be my pleasure," the Master replied, smiling at the angry glare Eva sent his way.

"That's enough about me," Eva said. "What about you? What is your failed attempt to take over the world going to include this time?"

"It's not going to be a failed attempt," the Master replied. "I already started looking for possible jobs, as soon as I settle on one that I want, I'll build a background story to make sure I get it. So far, the top two options are Ministry of Defence or Torchwood." Eva huffed amusedly into her plate, not looking up at the Master. "What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing," Eva replied in a singsong voice. "It's just that, if you don't want your entire plan to crumble in six months, you probably shouldn't take a job at Torchwood."

"Why not?" the Master asked. "What do you know?"

"Spoilers."

"As if I didn't hate that word enough already," the Master sighed. "Fine. Ministry of Defence it is."

Eva let out a sound that was half amusement and half desperation, focusing solely on her food. Neither of them said another word until after the Master finished eating, stood up and brought Christmas pudding to the table.

"Before you dig in," the Master said, more than a bit amused at the way Eva was looking at the dessert, "I have a present for you."

"Oh," Eva said, surprised. "You… you didn't have to."

"It is, to my understanding, a tradition to give gifts on Christmas," the Master replied.

"Not… not on Christmas Eve…" Eva sighed. "And, besides, I didn't get you anything."

"In the past two days, I kidnapped you from the year 100 trillion, forced you to stay with me and made you bleach your hair, even though you hate it," the Master recalled. "I hardly think I deserve a present."

"Still…" Eva said weakly. "It's the polite thing to do."

"In Rassilon's name, are you always like this?" the Master asked. "Stay quiet and take your gift!"

"Okay," Eva muttered, reaching out and taking the small box he offered her. "No need to get annoyed. Who'd hear, what did I already… Oh, Master," she sighed, looking at the sapphire bracelet in the box. "It's beautiful."

"I'm glad you like it," the Master said. "I wasn't sure if you'd prefer sapphires or emeralds…"

"Definitely sapphires," Eva told him. "Not such a fond of the colour green."

"Why not?" the Master asked. "If I remember, the green dress you wore with fake King John suited you well."

"I just don't like it," Eva shrugged, gently taking the bracelet out of the box. "Help me put it?" she asked, handing it to him and reaching out her hand.

"Gladly," the Master replied, fastening the bracelet on Eva's wrist before looking at it, admiring the gems. "Beautiful."

"Thank you," Eva said, smiling softly.

"You're very welcome," the Master replied. "So… dessert?"

"Not yet," Eva said. "You're supposed to eat dessert while sitting in front of the telly."

"Really?" the Master asked, confused.

"That's how we did it back home," Eva shrugged as she all but threw herself on the couch. "Come on, let's see what's on."

"The news," the Master replied, turning on the TV. "Something about a message coming from a space probe named _Guinevere One_. Honestly, this planet is so behind on technology it's kind of sad sometimes. Although…" he muttered, looking at the picture displayed on the television. "Well, that sure is interesting."

On the screen, was a picture of a distinctively alien face – a Sycorax, Eva knew. They were on their way to Earth, they were going to use blood control to hypnotize a third of the population, they will kill innocents and it won't be until the early hours of tomorrow morning that the Doctor –

She gasped as she felt burning pain on her wrist. Looking down at it, she could see a small burn forming underneath the bracelet the Master gave her. Did he do that? Did he make the bracelet burn? But why? All she did was think about the episode right after the Doctor –

"Ouch," she muttered, rubbing her wrist. The pain was connected to the Doctor – _burn_ – it stung whenever she thought of him. The Master did something to the bracelet to make sure that whenever she thought about the Doctor – _burn_ – it will hurt her.

She swallowed hard as she saw the Master looking between the bracelet and the screen, an odd smile starting to form on his lips.

"Oh, Doctor…" he sighed to himself. "What have you gotten yourself into _now_?"


	3. The Tears Dry

**A/N:** **Only just realized I didn't post the next chapter last week! Here it is, and I will post the next one in a week, as scheduled.**

 **By the way, I've been wondering if anybody noticed the theme I was keeping with the titles for these past chapters? Let me know if you noticed or if you didn't and you're curious :)**

* * *

Eva didn't look up from her phone as the car she was in drove into the road leading to the mansion. _The Saxon Mansion_ , as she guessed people would soon start referring to it, but for now it was nothing but a newly rebuilt house. She could feel the Master looking at her with slight annoyance, but she couldn't care less.

He was the one who told her they were playing a role whenever they were next to other people. Some days, she played the role of perfect daughter. Others, she would be the lovable celebrity.

Today, she was the over-privileged rich girl and anybody who had anything to say about that could go to hell for all she cared.

She couldn't wait until everybody left. Even though that meant she would be left alone with the Master, it also meant she could go back to being Evangeline Miller, rather than Eva Saxon.

It was a couple of days after New Year's that the Master bought the house, but as she saw it from the corner of her eye, she had to admit he a lot to make it liveable for both of them in the month that passed. It was far too big for just two people to live in, but then again so was the TARDIS.

At least there she had the time machine to keep her company whenever the Master left her alone for hours. What would she have here?

She could already feel herself starting to miss the TARDIS. It had been such an important part of her life for the past eleven months, and it was hard for her to even consider the possibility of voluntarily being away from it. Nevertheless, as public figures Harold and Eva Saxon had to be living in a house, not a multi-dimensional time machine.

She sighed as she turned her attention back to her phone, playing 'Snake' – not that she'd ever let the Master know that.

She only had one year and five months until the Doctor comes back. Granted, she'd have problems of a whole different kind then, but she'll burn that bridge when she'll get to it.

"We're here," the Master – _Saxon, she should start thinking about him as Saxon, at least when they were in public_ – said.

"Are we?" Eva drawled, earning herself a less-than-impressed look from the driver. "Never would have guessed."

"Eva," the Master – _Saxon_ – sighed.

"I'm sorry, _Father_ ," she said innocently, empathizing the word. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Eva…"

"Fine," Eva sighed, rolling her eyes as she put her phone in her pocket. "Geez, you're so uptight today."

"I have an important meeting this afternoon and I'd like to show you around the house before I need to go," Saxon replied.

"Yet another problem that could have been solved if you'd have showed me the house before today."

"I wanted it to be a surprise," Saxon said. "I didn't want to show it to you before it was ready."

"Well, don't complain to me about your lacking time planning," Eva retorted. "What meeting is it, anyways?"

"About the book," Saxon replied as the car came to a stop. "Out we go."

"Fun, fun, fun," Eva grumbled under her breath, running a hand through her blonde locks before following him out.

Up close, the Mansion looked even bigger. Eva couldn't begin to imagine why the Master thought they needed a house so big but, apparently, he did.

"Come," the Master said, taking her hand in his. "I'll show you around."

As they walked in and the master started his tour around the place, Eva started understanding why the house was so big – there were so many pointless rooms. Living room, kitchen, inside _and_ outside gardens – those she could understand, at least to a certain extent. A television room filled with CDs of various shows and movies? Not so much.

There was a study – Saxon's study, and a living room far too big for just two people to sit in. there was a bloody swimming pool.

"Neither of us has any friends," she told him when he showed her the guest room.

"I know," the Master sighed, "But I couldn't think of anything else to do with this room. A second television room seemed a bit redundant."

If it wasn't for the fact that he was completely serious, Eva might have burst out laughing.

He didn't open the door to his room, only showing her where it was before turning to the door across the hall from it and opening it to reveal her room.

As she took it in, Eva's jaw dropped. It was a near exact replica of her room in the TARDIS – which, in turn, was a near exact replica of her room back home.

The bookshelves, the desk, the wardrobe, the wall-sized window – all of these made her feel like home. Like Mike or Nyssa would barge through the door at any moment, like her parents would call her for lunch in just a minute.

And the bed, the rug on the floor, the pictures on the wall – all of these also made her feel like home. Like any of the Doctor's companions would barge through the door at any moment, like the Doctor himself would call her for an adventure in just a minute.

"The pictures," she found herself whispering, looking at them with disbelief.

"Replicas," the Master replied. "Didn't want to risk the originals getting ruined if I tried to move them."

Eva wasn't sure which of them was more surprised when she turned around and wrapped her hands around his neck in a tight embrace. It was the first time since she initiated contact with him since they arrived at this time period. For her, it was the first time she ever initiated contact with him.

"Thank you," she whispered in his ear.

"There's more," the Master said softly, gently guiding her towards a door right across from them.

Eva hesitantly let go of the Master and headed towards the door before pulling it open.

"Oh my bloody…" she muttered in disbelief. "I have a library. In my room." She turned to look at the Master. "There's a bloody library in my room."

"I noticed," he said dryly.

"Shut up." She looked back through the door before turning back to the Master. "There's a _library_. In my _bedroom_."

"Do you like it?"

"Like it?" Eva asked. "I love it! Thank you, thank you so much!"

"You're very welcome," the Master said, smiling. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a meeting to attend."

"Bye," Eva said, not even looking at him as she was once again too amazed by the library. "Have fun."

"I doubt it," the Master sighed but he walked away nonetheless, leaving Eva to explore the library further.

He never said where he kept the TARDIS.

Eva didn't ask.

 **EMH**

Eva was covered in flour top to bottom, humming to herself as she moved across the messy kitchen, opening one of the ovens and checking on the chocolate cake inside before turning to the other one, pushing a tray of cookies inside. She didn't seem to mind the mess, but as the Master walked into the room, he couldn't help but stare in horror at what appeared to be a warzone of eggs and baking powder.

"Coffee's over there," she said, pouring powdered sugar over an apple pie that rested amongst the eggshells and marking at what might have been a coffeepot before it was covered in batter. "Be careful when you go by the counter, I accidently dropped an egg there earlier."

"Eva?" he asked, considering heading towards the fridge for milk before deciding against it when he saw the frosting that covered the handle.

"Yes?"

"What the bloody hell is going on in here?"

"There's a bake sale for sick children today," Eva replied as she wrapped the cake and placed it next to several more. "I've been up since four in the morning."

"You're… cooking?"

"I don't _cook_ ," Eva said, rolling her eyes. "I _bake_. Watch out!" she added, pulling him back before he stepped inside a pool of molten chocolate and butter. "I thought we could go there today – it will be fun, and it's for a good cause. Plus, it's great for that publicity thing you keep talking to me about."

"I work today," the Master said.

"Call a day off," Eva retorted, not looking up at him. "There are sick children involved."

"Eva, you…" the Master took another worried glance around the kitchen. "You've completely lost it."

"Of course I've lost it," Eva said, rolling her eyes. "I've barely left the house in the past three weeks, didn't leave the TARDIS at all before that and yesterday was bleeding Valentine's Day. I want to go out. I _need_ to go out. And did I mention the sick children?"

"You really want to go to that bake sale, don't you?" the Master asked, noting how Eva took one cake out of the oven and reheating it again for a different one.

"I really, _really_ do," Eva said, pausing and looking at him. "Could we? Please? I even baked most of the cakes already!"

"Most of the…" From what the Master could see, Eva baked five different cakes already – not counting cookies and the cake she was about to get in the oven. "How many more do you have?"

"Not a lot," Eva shrugged. "Just the cheesecake and the cookies that are in the oven. But I need to finish the frosting on the cupcakes and I'm waiting for _these_ –" She marked at the general area of the fridge "– to cool down in order to make the sandwich cookies."

"When does the bake sale starts?"

"Officially, eleven," Eva said. "But since we're selling, we need to be there by ten thirty, and it's about thirty minutes by car since we live in the middle of nowhere."

"So if you want to be there on time, we need to be in the car by ten," the Master surmised. "Tell you what, if you promise you'll get yourself – and the kitchen – clean in time, I'll finish the sandwich cookies and come with you. Deal?"

"Deal!" Eva called excitedly, moving forward to hug him but stopping herself at the last moment, not wishing to get his suit covered with flour. "I'll start cleaning the kitchen. Here's _dulce de leche_ for the cookies," she rambled, reaching into one of the cupboards as he took off his jacket and tie. "Oh my god, it's gonna be so much fun! They bring the children from the hospital at around noon, and they get free cake, and the doctors always tell them not to have too much but you know they don't really mean it or they wouldn't have brought them in the first place, and…"

The Master started putting the sandwich cookies together, listening to Eva go on and on about the bake sale.

Sometimes, it was easy to forget she really was nothing more than a twenty-year-old girl. But as she talked his ear off with the excitement only someone so young could have, the Master couldn't help but smile.

 **EMH**

To be honest, the bake sale wasn't nearly as bad expected it to be. At first, when he looked at the different people who passed by, talking and eating, he had to fight the urge to vomit. But once the sick children arrived, smiling and laughing with joy at the sweets they were offered, his feelings shifted.

There was an odd feeling in his hearts – one that didn't feel like hatred, much to his surprise. The sight of Eva beaming as she spoke to the kids made him feel… content.

Oh, have him regenerate now, he never wanted to feel like that again.

Though, admittedly, while he would never admit it out loud and even less so when Eva could hear, the entire event was – dare he say it – _not torturous_.

"Oh my god!" he heard a teenager calling out. "Jessi, come look at this!"

"What is it?" another girl – Jessi – asked, stepping closer. "Oh my god… Mica, it's…"

"I know!"

"Is everything okay?" Eva asked, stepping closer to the girls. "Oh, the Rainbow Cake. Yup, gotta love the Rainbow Cake."

"Sorry," Jessi said shyly. "It's just… the cake looks like…"

"It's like Pride colours!" Mica exclaimed, her eyes shining happily.

"Well, I sure hope so," Eva replied with a bright smile. "That's kind of what I was aiming for. Would you like a slice?"

"Yes!"

"Yes, please," Jessi said, her voice shaking.

"Here you go," Eva said, handing each of them some cake before looking back at Jessi. "How old are you?" she asked softly.

"Fourteen," Jessi replied. "And a half."

"I was fifteen when I first realized," Eva told her. "Took me a long while to accept it, mind you, and even longer to tell others. I just wanted you to know… it's not easy, sometimes, but it gets better. Remember that."

"I…" Jessi's voice wavered. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Eva smiled. "Now go. You have an inhuman amount of cakes to eat today."

The two girls smiled and turned around. As they walked away, Eva's eyes focused on their intertwined hands and she sighed happily.

"Young love," she said before looking back at their list of selling for the day.

The Master looked at her for a moment before speaking, "I didn't know you were gay."

"I'm Bi," Eva corrected. "And did you really never realize?"

"Well…" Now that he thought about it, there _were_ more than a few hints. "Bi?"

"Bisexual," the Time Jumper explained. "Attracted to both men and women."

The Master frowned for a moment, trying to understand what it meant – if it even meant anything. It didn't, probably. He opened his mouth to ask another question when he saw a familiar face.

"Miss Cole?" he asked, surprised, and the woman in question looked up at him.

"Mr. Saxon," She greeted politely. "Fancy seeing you here."

"I could say the same," he replied. "And I told you, please, call me Harry."

"Okay, Harry," the woman said with a small smile. "Call me Lucy, then."

Eva's eyes darted to the couple for a moment as she heard the name but it didn't seem either of them realized, too immersed in their conversation to notice.

"What are you doing here?" the Master asked.

"My family are donors of the hospital," Lucy explained. "We double the amount raised today, so there's a need to show our presence." She sounded like she was repeating something someone else said – which, to be honest, was more than likely true. "You?"

"Woke up this morning to see Evie already baked most of these," he replied, marking at the many cakes in front of them.

"Did someone say my name?" Eva asked, looking at the two of them. "By the way, Dad, the lemon pie sold out, if anyone asks."

"You must be Eva," Lucy said, smiling at the young woman. "I heard a lot about you."

"Funny," Eva said with a smile of her own, turning to look at her 'father', "Cause I didn't hear _anything_ about you."

"Lucy's helping me with my book," the Master quickly said. "I told you about it."

"About the book, yes," Eva said. "About the pretty woman you apparently work closely with…"

"I should probably go," Lucy said, clearly starting to feel uncomfortable. "It was lovely meeting you, Eva. Harry… I'm sure I'll see you around."

She turned to leave and the Master glanced at Eva, who raised her brow, before calling out after her.

"Wait!" he said, and Lucy turned to look at him. "Why don't you come over sometime? Dinner, or… something like that?"

"I… er…" Lucy blushed slightly. "I'd like that. You have my number," she added, walking away again.

"You have her number, eh?" Eva asked, nudging his side playfully. "Why didn't you tell me about her?"

"I wanted to make sure she'll do," the Master replied.

"Do what? Do _for_ what?"

"I told you already that Harriet Jones was forced to resign," the Master said. "There are still a couple of months before the next candidates are announced. Now, I already have a loveable candidate," he marked at himself, "and a loveable daughter," he marked at Eva. "All I need is a loveable wife and we have a winning team."

"So she's nothing more than a pawn in your game?" Eva asked angrily.

"Of course," the Master said. He thought that much was obvious.

"What about me?" Eva asked. "Am I nothing more than a pawn, too?"

"Of course not!" the Master said. "No, you're my –" he paused, unable to finish the sentence.

"Your what?" Eva questioned. "I'm your _what_ , Master?" she hissed.

"Spoilers."

Something he couldn't quite translate crossed Eva's eyes, but the Master knew that no matter how she felt, she won't question him further – at least not on that particular matter. She, more than anyone, understood the dangers of telling someone about their personal future.

"Fine," she all but spat. "Don't tell me. But you'll have to tell _her_ , eventually. You'll have to tell her the truth – about you, about us, about your plans. You can't keep her in the dark forever."

"I can try," he said simply.

Eva let out a disbelieving huff. "You _will_ tell her," she said. "And you will do it in the next month."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I will."

And with that, Eva turned away from him and started talking to a couple of costumers.

The Master looked at her, anger burning through him. Who does she think she is? After everything he did for her, this is how she repays him?

Though, he had to admit, she did have a point. He can't keep Lucy in the dark. He'll have to tell her.

But he will do it on his terms, no one else's.


	4. Life Goes On

When she looked back at the first two months she spent living on Earth with the Master, Eva had to admit that things were relatively uneventful.

The Time Lord and the former Time Jumper settled into a bizarre sort of co-existence in which the Master dug his roots deeper into the government while Eva played the role of the perfect daughter to the public.

She took online university classes, determined to be on an advanced enough level to take her second year properly the coming fall. At other times, she arrived with her 'father' to different social events. There had been a news article about the two of them, and she would never admit to the Master how much she enjoyed the prepping up that proceeded both the interview itself and the photographing that took place.

Together, the duo made a stunning cover picture for an economics newspaper Eva only heard of in passing due to her real – well, technically adopting – father's career in journalism.

Lucy grew closer and closer to the two of them, arriving almost every night to dinner and Eva wouldn't have been surprised if she announced the desire to become Mrs. Saxon in the foreseeable future – even though the Master still hadn't told her the truth about them, something which bothered Eva greatly.

The month's deadline she gave the Master was slowly growing nearer but despite her self-confidence when she gave the Master her warning, if it came to that she wasn't sure she'd be able to do so. The natural blonde seemed so happy with the Master, and though Eva knew that in a little over a year's time, she'd know everything and will be okay with it, she honestly wasn't sure if Lucy was ready.

Besides, she wasn't overly keen on being that one to pop Lucy's little bubble.

Though, Lucy's status as a part of their mismatched 'family' wasn't what bothered her over the period of a few days in the beginning of March, leading to her mentioning the topic to the Master.

"How come nobody recognizes me?" she asked him over dinner on one of the rare occasions when Lucy didn't join them, having to go represent her family in some event or another. "I mean, sure, my hair's blonde and it a difference, but Jack's known me for over a century by this point and the Doctor's known me for longer. I get how it can make most people not look at me twice and overthink Eva Saxon and Eva Miller being the same person, but my pictures are in newspapers all the time. How didn't they recognize me?"

To be honest, though she won't admit it out loud and surely not with the Master so close by, she was torn between disappointed and sad that they didn't recognize her. She wasn't sure if there was anything they could do if they did recognize her, as they all needed to preserve the timelines, but she hoped they'd at least notice _something_ was wrong.

"Your bracelet acts as a perception filter, amongst other things," the Master explained. "If someone knows what to look for, they'll recognize you, but nobody other than the two of us knows. Add that to the Archangel Network…" he shrugged, and Eva nodded.

Well, if nothing else she had to admit she was equally impressed and scared by how thoroughly the Master thought every part of his plan during such a short period of time. Just as it scared her just how casual their relationship had become, considering she was essentially still his prisoner.

If it wasn't for the pact that she was practically counting the days until Election Day – a date that, for most people, wasn't even publicly declared yet – she would have been worried that she might have some sort of Stockholm Syndrome.

As it were, she continued maintaining what she could only describe as a friendly relationship while making sure to watch out. After all, the Master wasn't exactly known for being the most mentally stable Time Lord around.

"Do you have plans for tomorrow?" she asked.

"Well, I plan to tell Lucy the truth." Eva's eyebrows jumped up in surprise and the Master sighed. "Well, you threatened to tell her yourself, didn't you? I only have ten more days to deliver. Then I have some awful cabinet meeting to attend, but Lucy said she'll take you shopping. Nothing special tomorrow evening. Why?" he added as an afterthought, studying Eva's face closely.

"No reason," she replied, far too quickly and they both knew it.

"Eva…"

"I think I'll go to sleep now, I'm tired." She quickly placed her plate in the sink and all but ran upstairs.

The Master stared after her, more than a bit confused. Did he miss anything? Was there anything important that was supposed to happen the next day?

Maybe it was something to do with Eva's foreknowledge…

Either way, he'll tell Lucy to pay close attention to her when he'll drop her off to shop with the younger woman. He doubted it very much, but there was always the small chance that she'll be able to figure out what was wrong.

 **EMH**

Lucy smiled softly as she walked through Oxford Street with Eva by her side, looking through the shops' windows and occasionally stopping to try things out. So far, they didn't buy much but Lucy couldn't care less.

She spent the morning with Harry. At first when he led her to his bedroom at the Saxon Mansion, she was slightly worried, but he quickly reassured her it wasn't sex on his mind.

"Not today, at least," he added with a cheeky smile. "No, I… I brought you here today because I haven't been completely honest with you."

"You… you haven't?" she asked, her worry levels ascending all too quickly.

She truly did hope it wasn't anything too bad. She really liked Harry and Eva, and she could see herself becoming a part of their life as time went by, and vice versa. Besides, if things went the way she hoped they would someday, it would really stick it to her cousin Polly and her jab last Sunday about Lucy being too stupid for someone like Harold Saxon.

"No," Harry sighed. "And I am so deeply sorry for it. I… I just didn't know how to tell you."

"Tell me what?" Lucy asked.

"Eva and I," Harry started, "We aren't… aren't from here."

"From London?"

"No," Harry shook his head, sighing again. "We aren't from… Earth."

Well, she couldn't say she expected that. "Oh?" she asked, torn between curious, surprised and just a bit scared.

"Please, hear me out," he quickly said and Lucy nodded.

Harry turned around and walked towards the door to his wardrobe room, pulling it open. Inside were a few more sets of his signature suits, some undergarments and a distinctively blue box.

Slowly, Lucy joined him. As he opened what she now recognized to be the door of the box, her breath went away.

"It's called the TARDIS," Harry explained. "It's a spaceship and a time machine."

"It's…" Lucy muttered, walking in and looking around. "It's _huge_! And beautiful. Oh, Harry…" She turned to look at him. "It's yours?"

"It's how we got here," Harry replied. "Harold Saxon is not my real name. My name is the Master. I took the name when we arrived here."

"Is Eva…?" Lucy started distractedly, still looking around.

"It's her real name," Harry – the Master? – replied. "She only took the Saxon part with me."

"So, you're not…" Lucy started carefully. "Not… Human?"

"No."

"Oh." She looked around the spaceship – the TARDIS – again before stepping out.

"So?" It seemed like Harry was almost nervous. "What do you think?"

"I think I'm fine," Lucy replied honestly. An odd feeling of calm and acceptance settled on her in the past couple of minutes. "Anything else I should know?"

"Not much," Harry shrugged. "Just that I plan to take over the world and have you as my Queen."

Lucy's eyes widened in disbelief. Oh, she was going to be a Queen! This really was every girl's dream come true.

Now, Lucy carefully glanced at the girl walking by her side.

When he dropped her off, Harry had asked her to keep an eye on the young woman – _alien?_ – whichever way one would choose to refer it. If there was one thing Lucy knew, it was that she needed more time to wrap her head around _that_.

Either way, Harry said that Eva was acting strangely the night before, and asked Lucy to see if she could find out what might be bothering his daughter. So far, she hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary other than Eva being quieter than usual, and even that could be attributed to the fact she disliked shopping, as she admitted to Lucy earlier that day.

Nothing seemed wrong until Eva looked into her cigarette pack to find it empty. She stopped next to a small shop and told Lucy she's going in to buy some more.

The only sign that Lucy even heard was a small, almost unnoticeable frown.

"Harry doesn't like that you smoke," she stated simply, as if the fact alone would make Eva quit right then and there.

"Nobody likes that I smoke," Eva replied, forcing herself not to mention that the Master knew she was smoking since the moment they met – nearly a year ago for her and several centuries for him, when he took her as prisoner and proceeded to brainwash her. "Didn't bother me before, doesn't bother me now."

Lucy's frown deepened, but she didn't say anything else as Eva walked into the store. The older woman hesitated for a moment before following her in.

It wasn't the first time she had seen Eva in a situation like this, but the ease in which the young woman talked to the cashier – exchanging a few words of pleasantries before asking for her cigarette brand – amazed her every time.

She always felt out of place in stores of this sort. The constant flow of people, those horrid fluorescent lights – she didn't know how Eva could bare it, let alone act completely at home. It was as if this was a scenario she was well-acquainted with, and now that Lucy knew Eva and Harry weren't originally from Earth, it only amazed her more.

"'Fraid I'm gonna have to see an ID," the cashier said.

"Of course," Eva replied politely, handing it out for him to see. A short exchange of cash later had Eva placing the pack in her pocket. "Thank you."

"No problem," the man replied. "Oh, and – happy birthday, miss."

Eva let out a small, tight smile that Lucy only knew was fake because of the amount of time she spent in social events before thanking the man again and heading to the door, Lucy hot on her heels.

 _Of course_ Eva was acting strangely, _of course_ she was upset. It was her birthday, her father forgot and while most people could celebrate with their friends, Eva didn't have any – at least not on this planet, as far as Lucy knew.

In her mind, she started running through her schedule for the day, and then Harry's. He's supposed to spend all day in meetings, only coming back home in the early hours of the evening, and she had to leave in about an hour to attend a charity event on her family's behalf. That meant Eva had four hours all alone in the big, empty mansion.

On regular days Lucy let Harry know she was less than pleased with Eva spending so much time alone, even if he promised that she needed the quiet to learn from her online classes. To think she'll do nothing but study for four hours, on her _birthday_ …

Lucy quickly pulled out her phone and started texting a man who worked in the Victoria Palace Theatre and owed her a couple of favours.

It may be too late to make today memorable for Eva, but she was sure as hell going to do everything to make tonight the best birthday Eva had ever experienced.

 **EMH**

When the Master walked into Eva's room, he found her laying on the bed, still in the clothes she wore when she went out for shopping with Lucy. If he had to guess, he'd say that she fell on that spot when she came back hours earlier, and hadn't moved an inch since.

Her hand was clutching her wrist, and upon a closer look he could see tears making trails on her face. Of course, he should have figured out that the bracelet would burn all day long today. On regular days, it burned at least a couple of times, being here and away from the Doctor on her birthday was bound to burn Eva's wrist down to the bone if it weren't for her abnormal healing.

He should have realized something was wrong last night. He should have remember the dates he set up for the two of them when they arrived at this time. He couldn't care less about his birthday, and only wrote a series of random numbers to make sure the space wouldn't be left empty, but Eva was still young – only twenty years old.

Ages were important when the numbers were this low, especially with humans.

Silently, he sat by Eva's side. She didn't acknowledge his presence with words, but he knew she noticed he was there by the way her shoulders tensed. He moved a stray curl from her face before talking.

"Can I see your wrist?"

Eva hesitated for a moment. With all honesty, the Master couldn't blame her.

They both knew that the purpose of that bracelet was to keep her from spending too long thinking about the Doctor, and she did little today other tan think about him. As a matter of fact, she had just spent close to four hours doing nothing but thinking about him.

The moment, however, passed, and Eva moved her hand in the Master's direction.

Gently, as to not cause her any more pain, the Master pulled Eva into a seating position. She didn't look up at him as he fidgeted with her bracelet, nor did she look at the object itself. She looked down at her lap, her free hand resting against her thigh.

Only when the Master released the bracelet from around her wrist did Eva look up at him.

"I'm sorry," he said. "For forgetting what today was and… and for not taking into consideration what today would mean." He gently moved his fingers over the burns on her wrist, using his regeneration energy to heal it before lightly kissing her hand and letting it go again. "I should have known better."

Eva sat silently, looking between her now-healed wrist and the Master several times in disbelief. As soon as the shock that seemed to overcome her had passed, she touched the skin of her hand, making sure there were really no remains of the burns.

Once she found it healed enough to her satisfaction, she used that very same hand to slap the Master across the face.

"You bloody idiot!" she called out. "That was the stupidest use of regeneration energy I had ever seen – and I've been travelling with the Doctor, so that's saying something! I heal faster than normal humans do, you dolt! In fact, the burns you healed were only about thirty minutes old, because anything older than that had _already fucking healed_!"

"Ow – stop hitting me – Eva!"

"I will stop hitting you when you will start using your bloody brain for a change!" Eva called out, tears streaming from her eyes once more as her hands fell to her sides. "Just leave me alone, Master. The damage is already done. You forgot, and there's nothing you can do to change that."

"No, there isn't," the Master agreed. "But, last I checked, we still have five and a half more hours of your birthday, and Lucy made plans."

"She…" That took Eva by surprise. "She had?"

"As soon as she realized it was your birthday, she pulled some strings, used up a couple of favours," the Master replied, smiling softly. Eva's eyes widened slightly as she remembered the hour the other woman spent texting at any free moment she had while the two of them were shopping earlier today. "We really should get going, seeing as it starts at eight."

"What does?" Eva asked, her excitement being held back by the remains of her anger.

"That would be telling," the Master replied, wiping away the tears that hadn't dried yet. "What I _will_ tell you is that you should wear something a bit more formal than usual, but not by much."

"Why?" Eva asked, curious. "You know I will be able to dress up more accordingly if I knew what was going on, right?"

"Nice attempt," the Master smiled, kissing Eva's cheek. "The car should be here to pick us up in twenty minutes, and we'll need to go as soon as it comes."

"Go where?" Eva called out after him as he walked out of the room. "Master! That's not fair!"

The sound of his laughter was only cut off when the door closed behind him, and Eva huffed. She was still angry with the Master for forgetting her birthday, and even more so at not realizing the bracelet would hurt her more than usual today and then at healing her burns when they would have healed quickly on their own.

Still, she couldn't help but feel excitement at the idea of a surprise for her birthday. It might not be much, and there was a fair chance that it was too little, too late, but if Lucy organized it then at least it would be something normal and human, rather than the usual oddities the Time Lord often came up with.

 _At the very least,_ she thought to herself, _I should try to have a good time. For Lucy's sake, of course, not for him._

Even she didn't believe herself.

 **EMH**

The Master smiled as they entered the car, having just walked out of the play Lucy arranged for them to see. _Sweeny Todd_ was an odd play even by human standards, Lucy told him, but it was the only one she could get good tickets to on such a short notice.

Personally, the Master found it all quite amusing – a whole city not noticing that almost everyone who walked into a certain barber shop went missing, especially when said barber shop was right above a bakery whose pies became famous since the barber shop was opened. He had to admit, though, that Todd and Lovett had found quite a smart way to rid themselves of the evidence to all the murders they committed.

By his side, Eva was ecstatic. As it turned out, back before she started travelling with the Doctor she and her best friend would go to see a play for each of their birthdays.

"Mine's in December, and hers was in November," Eva said as they sat down in the theatre, "But we bought the tickets back in June to get good seats in our budget. Her birthday was less than a month before I started travelling with the Doctor, and we went to see _Sweeny Todd_. Afterwards, we watched the movie about five times."

Even if she hadn't said so before, the Master thought he could have figured it out on his own by the way she mouthed every single line of the songs in tune with the actors. When they walked out of the play, she was all but jumping up and down in happiness.

"What play were the two of you supposed to go to on your birthday?" he asked, hoping that the intents behind the question weren't too obvious.

" _Rent_ ," Eva replied simply. "We both know the movie pretty much by heart, but we never saw the actual play."

They bought some ice cream at a stand by the theatre, and it was then that Lucy pulled out the gift they bought for Eva – and when the Master said 'they', he meant Lucy bought the gift and told him he's joining in on it, as well, because there was no way he wasn't getting anything for his daughter's birthday.

"Forget unkind, that's just bad manners," the blonde huffed.

At the sight of the Polaroid camera, Eva's eyes widened in disbelief. She turned the device in her hands, weighing it before lifting it to her face and taking a picture of the museum. She stared at the piece of paper that came out, shocked.

"You need a hobby," Lucy shrugged in response to the twenty-year-old's questioning glance. "I know your studies are very important to you, since you want to start attending uni like a normal person the coming fall, but staying home as much as you do isn't healthy. Now, you'll start going out – even if it's only to take a picture and then go back in again."

Now, as they sat in the car, Eva took pictures of the streets using her new camera, a smile etched on her face. The Master looked outside the window as well, trying to understand what Eva found worth taking pictures of, as a verse from one of the songs in the musical came into his mind.

 _There's a hole in the world like a great black pit,  
And the vermin of the world inhabit it,  
And its morals aren't worth what a pig can spit,  
And it goes by the name of London…_

Well, at least that was something he could relate to. He didn't think he could ever understand what was it about this city that lured the Doctor and Eva as much as it did, but that was a discussion for another night.

For now, Eva was happy, and that was the only important thing.


	5. But I'm Gone

If she thought about it in a completely rational, objective way, Eva could understand why the Master thought it was necessary for her to have a bodyguard. It still didn't mean she liked it.

It all started on a morning a few days after Easter.

Spring came quickly and at once that year, and so Eva managed to convince the Master to allow her to go out to the city and take some pictures. His day was packed with meetings, but they agreed to meet up for lunch at noon, after which Eva was to go back to the Mansion.

The hours passed uneventfully as Eva walked through the city, stopping here and there to take a picture or just to observe the day to day life of the people on the street.

She could see a group of kids who probably skipped school to hang around, a few students sitting in cafés, already starting to revise for the upcoming tests. After a few hours, she started seeing tourists who had only just woke up, wandering aimlessly while trying to see as much of London as they could in their short time.

Nothing directly related to the Doctor had happened since Christmas, and Eva didn't know the exact dates of the events in the series other than the holiday specials, which was why she was caught by surprise when shadow-like people appeared out of thin air.

 _No…_ she quickly corrected herself. _Not shadows… ghosts._

This was it. This was when the ghost shifts started. People around her started screaming in panic, but Eva paid them no attention. If the ghost shifts started now, that meant there were only two months left to the Battle of Canary Wharf.

Only two months left to Doomsday.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice the two men advancing towards her from behind – at least not until one of them grabbed her and put a cloth to her mouth and nose.

Eva acted without thinking. Quickly, she jerked her head backwards and smiled through the cloth as she heard a satisfying _'crack'_ and a yelp of pain. The man holding her let go and stepped back, placing a hand on his now-broken nose, and the cloth fell from Eva's face.

She wasn't sure what they put on the piece of fabric, but the single breath she took of the substance before she realized what was happening was enough to make her head spin.

" _Help_!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, pulling the attention of enough of the people around her away from the ghost and towards her – enough to make her attackers outnumbered. " _Help_!"

Two men quickly lunged forwards, grabbing the attacker with the broken nose while his friend made another attempt at Eva. He grasped her hands in his, making sure she couldn't use them to defend herself, but there was nothing that kept her legs in place. Her knee hit right between his legs and he let go.

Eva cried out in pain as she stumbled backwards, making a young woman rush towards her.

"Miss?" the woman asked. "Miss, are you okay?"

No. Eva was definitely _not_ okay. She blinked tears away from her eyes but that did nothing to stop her body from shaking. The woman reached out towards her arm and Eva flinched away from the touch.

Someone just tried to kidnap her.

Of course, that had happened before – hell, the only reason she was here right now was because the Master kidnapped her. But when she was travelling with the Doctor, she knew the risks. There shouldn't have been any risks now.

"Is there anybody we can call?"

Someone had brought her bag over. Eva absently checked her camera before sighing in relief when she found it wasn't broken.

"My dad," she found herself saying. "I… we were supposed to meet for lunch. Could somebody call my dad?"

The woman nodded, taking the phone out of Eva's bag and dialling. Eva noted that she made sure not to accidently touch her.

"Hello? Sir? I'm with your daughter here, she was just attacked and asked if I could call you…"

"Oi!" a man barked at a teenager who tried to take a video of the scene with his phone. "Put that away! The last thing she needs is to see her face on the news today!"

"He says he's on his way," the woman said, handing Eva her phone back. "He should be here in about ten minutes."

Eva nodded slowly, her arms wrapping around herself.

She wasn't sure why she wanted the Master. He wasn't any better than these men. He kidnapped her, too. But, at the end of the day, she knew he wouldn't cause her any serious harm – at least not on purpose. She had little doubt in mind that if those men managed to take herm they would have.

A policeman came to question her. The police arrived just moments earlier and they were currently taking the men into custody and trying to figure out why Eva was their target. She didn't say much, only relayed the events as dryly as she could manage and tried not to burst into tears.

She didn't look at the officer, only at the pavement. She didn't want to see the pity she was sure she'll find in his eyes.

"Let me through – I said, let me through! That's my daughter!"

Eva looked up, only just starting to see the crowd that assembled around the area. The woman who helped her was now being questioned by a woman in uniform, but she could see the Master pushing through the crowd. Tears rose to her eyes when she saw relief take over his features at that sight of her.

"Evie!" he called out, pushing through the officer that held him back and running towards her.

As soon as he reached her he threw his arms around her in a hug, a gesture Eva didn't hesitate to return. Her arms wrapped tightly around his neck and she could almost _feel_ the policemen around them understanding.

Her father was Harold Saxon, the Minister of Defence. She came from a well-known, wealthy and influential family.

They tried to kidnap her for ransom.

The Master and Eva stayed there for another half an hour after that, answering the police officer's questions. The men were taken for questioning, but the detective in charge promised that she'll keep the two of them updated on the case. After all, they still had to make sure the men were working alone, and not under someone else's orders.

The Master kept his arm around Eva's shoulders the entire time.

He cancelled all of the meetings he had that afternoon, calling their driver to take them home immediately. Once there, he cooked both of them lunch and opened the TV for some background noise. He made sure to avoid the news channels.

The next morning, Eva woke up to find out the Master hired a bodyguard to make sure events such as the day before didn't happen again.

If she thought about it in a completely rational, objective way, Eva could understand why the Master thought it was necessary. It still didn't mean she liked it.

Though she had to admit, once she got over the fact that there was someone trailing her all day and sleeping only a couple of rooms away from hers all night, having a bodyguard wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. As a matter of fact, once he realized Eva wasn't going to let their relationship remain completely professional, Alex turned out to be a really nice guy.

It was a bit sad, she mused, that the first friend she made since she arrived to this time was her bodyguard. She even managed to convince the Master to tell him parts of the truth, once she was certain he wouldn't freak out and run away. Of course, living with the two of them and escorting Eva wherever she went meant that Alex was told a lot more than the Master probably would have likes, and figured out much else by himself. So far, he knew more about the fake father and daughter than anyone else – including Lucy.

Alex took it all in his stride and moved on as if nothing had changed.

Slowly, days turned to weeks and Eva found herself having less and less time to ponder this turn of events.

The Master proposed to Lucy, who happily accepted, and the two were now planning their wedding. The Master was no also an official candidate to the Prime Minister post, running under the slogan 'Vote Saxon!'

Eva's time divided between helping at wedding arrangements, interviewing at different host shows and studying for her all-too-quickly approaching exams. At any free moment she had, she planned.

About two months after the first ghost shift, the Battle arrived.

And Eva was ready.

"Why do I have a feeling I'll get in trouble over this?" Alex muttered, leaning next to Eva on the car.

"You won't," Eva promised, not taking her eyes off the building. "I'll take the blame."

"Because that makes me feel _so_ much better."

"Stop whining, Sasha," Eva said, rolling her eyes.

"It's _Alex_ ," the man said in annoyance.

"Which is short for Alexander," Eva replied. "As is Sasha."

"Only if you're Russian," Alex retorted. "I'm Greek."

"Alexander the Great was Greek and he died at the age of thirty three," Eva told him.

"Well, Sasha lost at poker night last week," Alex said. "I'd much rather be remembered for thousands of years and taught about in history lessons than be 200£ poorer."

Eva smiled softly at Alexander's reply. It was a conversation they had many times in the past couple of months, word to word. She wasn't sure who this Sasha was, but as it seemed like he already lost close to 2,000£ on poker night, she thought someone needed to have a serious discussion with him about his addiction to gambling.

"We won't get in trouble this time," Eva said, going back to their previous topic of conversation. "Not for something like this. This is different."

"How so?" Alex asked, and Eva took a deep breath.

"These are events directly connected to my birth."

Just as the words left her mouth, she saw a man walk out of the building, carrying one of the conversion units with him.

"Oi!" she called out, trying to get his attention. "Jones!"

Ianto turned around at once, pulling his gun and aiming it at them. Eva could feel Alex reaching out for his own gun, but a slight shake of her head stopped him from pulling it out. His hand still rested on it, ready to use it at a moment's notice. Slowly, she raised her hands in the air.

"It's okay," she said. "We're not here to harm you. Or her," she added as an afterthought, nodding towards the conversion unit.

"Who are you?" Ianto asked.

"We're friends," Eva replied. "Well… I am. He's my bodyguard."

"And I'm not a big fan of people aiming their guns at her," Alex added. "So if you could please put it away…"

Ianto hesitated for a moment before placing his gun back in his belt, making Alex relax significantly. Eva smiled softly, made noted the fact that the archivist still kept a safe distance from the two of them.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"We're here to help," Eva replied. "This car is all paid for and legally under your name. Take it to Cardiff, there's a branch of Torchwood there that cut itself off the London HQ a few years back."

"Torchwood fell," Ianto said, his voice shaking as he looked at the conversion unit that held his fiancée.

"Torchwood Three didn't," Eva told him. "It's still perfectly functioning, and will be for quite some time, if memory serves me right. Go there and find Captain Jack Harkness. Tell him Eva sent you and he'll get you a job – might not be much more than making coffee, but the Hub's got a big enough basement to hide _her_." Ianto tensed at the mention of his fiancée, but Eva went on, "If you want to make an impression, there's supposed to be a pterodactyl in a warehouse somewhere in the city."

Ianto hesitated, looking between the two people in front of him, the car and the conversion unit with tears in his eyes.

"Why?" he asked. "Why are you even helping me? I don't even know you."

"But I know you," Eva replied. "I met you, in your future, and I know you're a good man."

"I…" Ianto swallowed hard. "I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything," Alex told him. "Just take the car and don't stop until you've reached Cardiff."

"Thank you," the younger man choked out.

The only reply he got from Alex and Eva was two identical smiles.

Alex helped Ianto to load what used to be Lisa onto the car before Eva gave him a quick in and out about the car and what he needed to do once he reached Cardiff. Once the Torchwood Agent was on his way, Alex turned to look at Eva.

"We should probably head back before your father notices that we're missing," he said, and Eva smiled.

"Oh, he noticed hours ago," she said, ignoring the horrified look her friend was giving her. "I think he called me about thirteen times so far."

With that, she started walking away, leaving her bodyguard more than a bit scared for both their lives.

 **EMH**

The day that followed that particular events wasn't a nice one for Eva and Alex. Both of them felt like little kids again as they sat on the couch, their eyes lowered in shame as the Master reprimanded them for interfering.

"The day was packed with fixed points at every corner of the building!" he told them, pacing in front of them. "You could have changed something that must never be changed!"

"I knew what I was doing –"

"No, you didn't! You only know what would have happened if you never existed! How do you know Jones wasn't meant to die there?"

"Because I know him!" Eva called out angrily. "I met him, in his future – and, even if I hadn't, I knew _of_ him. I _know_ he was going to get out alive and head to Cardiff, even if I didn't interfere, because he's going to save my biological dad's life so if he dies here, I'd never have been born!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, Eva placed her hand on it and the Master raised a brow. She revealed too much, and all people present in the room knew it.

She quickly stood up, trying to leave, but the Master's grasp on her arm stopped her.

"Jones knows you father?" he asked, clearly intrigued by the hint she had just given him.

Despite his words several months ago, the Master still wasn't any closer to figuring out the identity of Eva's father than the Doctor was in the centuries since the mystery arose. The knowledge that Ianto will meet Eva's biological dad in Cardiff made it more than easy to make the connection to Jack.

"Leave him alone," Eva growled. "Do you hear me? Leave him alone!"

"Who?" the Master smirked. "Mr. Jones or Daddy Dearest?"

"Both of them."

At that, the Master's smirk grew into a full-out smile. He reached out his free hand, cupping her cheek in his palm.

"Oh, darling," he mock sighed. "Didn't one ever tell you that when someone have leverage over you, you never let them know? _They just might choose to use it_ ," he added in a whisper.

"Don't hurt him," Eva whispered back, her anger quickly fading to fear. "Please, I… please, don't hurt them."

"I don't plan to," the Master told her coldly. "I certainly don't _want_ to. But I will if I need to." He smiled again, removing his hand from her face and walking away, only stopping when he reached the door. "If I were you, I'd behave," he said, the glint of madness showing in his eyes. "After all, humans are _ever_ so fragile."

He walked out, leaving the threat hanging in the room behind him. As soon as he was out of sight, Eva fell to the floor.

"What have I done?" she whispered in horror, looking up at Alex. "God, what have I done?"

"You haven't done anything," Alex was quick to reassure her, helping her to her feet.

"Are you out of your mind?" Eva asked. "I might as well have just signed their death warrants myself."

"That's not true –"

"Alex, I have knowledge that no person should ever have. I know parts of the future that nobody should _ever_ be aware of." She swallowed hard. "And now there's a madman who can kill everyone I care about if he wants to. He'd kill everyone I care about if I don't tell him what I know."

"So tell him."

Eva blinked, snapping out of the haze she was trapped in since the Master made his threats. "I'm sorry, _what_?"

"Tell him," Alex repeated. "Figure out what you can tell him without changing the timelines – things that would have happened either way, things he can't change even if he wants to. He may be crazy, but if there's one thing he showed todays it's that he cares about the rules of time as long as changing them would interfere with his endgame."

"So, what?" Eva asked. "You're saying I should tell him to kill people?"

"I'm saying that if you know he'll kill someone even if you wouldn't say anything, it's okay to tell him that this person should die," Alex replied. "Because if he was going to kill that person no matter what you said, than that person needs to die to maintain the timeline, right?"

"I…" Eva swallowed. "I don't want anyone to die because of me. Because of what I know."

"I know you don't," Alex said. "But you and I both know that there will be times where it's either a person you know is going to die or one of your friends or family. And you'll have to make that choice eventually."

"I'll be killing people," Eva whispered. "Their deaths will be on me."

"No, you won't and no, they won't," Alex told her sharply. "Eva, look at me." Slowly, Eva brought her eyes up to look at her only friend in this time. "You're not alone in this, okay? I'll help you."

"I…" Eva closed her eyes. "I don't want you to die, either."

Alex smiled softly, wiping a stray tear from her cheek.

"Gonna take a lot more than an alien madman to kill me," he joked. "Come on, now. There's a charity event you need to attend in less than two hours."

 **EMH**

The next six months passed in a daze. Eva wasn't sure where did all the time go to, but it felt like she was watching events like a recollection of scenes in a movie.

"I got accepted!" she called out one day, running downstairs from her room after opening a letter the Master left on her desk. "I got accepted, I got accepted!"

"What?" Lucy asked, bemused. "Dear, what are you talking about?"

Eva waved the paper in her hand.

 _"Dear Ms. Saxon,"_ she read aloud, _"We are happy to inform you that you have been accepted to University College London to join the second year studies for a BA degree in History."_

"You got accepted?" the Master asked, a wide smile on his face.

"I got accepted!" Eva confirmed, laughing as the Master pulled her into a hug. "Of course, there are some courses I'll have to take because the option is unavailable online, and the university can pull back the acceptance if I can't keep up with both these and my regular courses –"

"But you got accepted!" Lucy reminded her.

"I got accepted!"

Between preparing for the beginning of term and the wedding that followed soon afterwards, Eva forgot about ever letting slip that Ianto knew her biological father. During the month the Master and Lucy were away on their honeymoon, she grew even closer than before to Alex – especially since the poor man now had to sit in all of her lectures with her.

Most of the time, it was amusing, but occasionally, it was right out annoying.

"Will you stop?" she whispered one day as she got ready in her seat for a lecture by a guest professor from Oxford University. "I'm actually excited for this one and you're ruining it all by fidgeting in your seat like a six year old."

"It's not a compulsory lecture," Alex whined. "Why do we have to be here? We could have already been home if we didn't stay for this."

"We could have, but this is interesting," Eva replied. " _'The Mysteries of Time'_. Can you honestly tell me you're not even a bit curious?"

"Yes."

"Shut up, Sasha."

"I mean, honestly –"

"Shh!" Eva whispered. "He's here."

True to Eva's words, the entire lecture hall silenced as a man walked in. He appeared to be in his fifties, though he walked with the grace of someone half his age as he settled at the front of the hall, all eyes drawn to him.

"What are the mysteries of time?" he asked, his voice echoing around the hall. "Time in itself is a mystery we have yet to understand. As historians, we study the events of the past, but how can we tell if the information we find is to be trusted? How can we know the reliability of the sources we grasp on to? And, most importantly, how can we tell that a person really is who we say they are, and not someone else?

"In this lecture, I will tell you the tale of two people, who are scattered throughout history. I will teach you what I have spent years studying – and will try to convince you to study it, as well," he added, drawing laughter from different areas of the hall. Eva leaned forwards in her seat, grasping to his every word. "In close to thirty years of research, I managed to find countless mentions of the duo – most of the time together, though occasionally apart. I call them 'The Mysteries of Time' but they are often better known by their titles – the Doctor and the Omniscient."

Eva was so shocked that she didn't even notice the way her wrist burnt at the mention of the Doctor's name. Next to her, Alex choked on his bottle of water.

"We will travel all the way back from the age of cavemen, through well-known events such as the volcanic eruption of Pompeii and the time of crusaders. We will see them mentioned in the royal writings of Henry VIII and Queen Victoria, and we will try to answer two important questions – who are the All-Knower Evangeline and the Healer she can be often found with, and is there a chance they might still be with us to this day?"

Eva swallowed hard, suddenly more than aware than she was sitting right in the middle of the hall, and that there was no way for her to get out without appearing rude.

"Since I only have two hours, I wouldn't be able to tell you everything," he added. "But you are more than welcome to stay for questions afterwards or to address me by mail or email – this information will be available at the end of the lecture."

Alex glanced at Eva and she sighed. These were going to be the longest two hours of her life.

"Did you really do all of that?" Alex asked when they walked out of the lecture.

"Not yet, I didn't," Eva grumbled, heading straight to the car that was waiting for them.

"Henry the Eighth, though?"

Eva sighed. "He proposed, I ran away, he charged me with treason. End of story."

"Alexander Hamilton?"

"Something to look forward to," Eva replied, her voice much lighter than her mood. "Always wanted to take a bullet for a historical figure."

"Really?"

"No, not really!"

"What about Queen Victoria?" Alex asked. "I mean… I know you're alive, but a Knighthood post-mortem… that's something, that is."

Eva closed her eyes, remembering the six months she spent with the Monarch. "I didn't know," she admitted. "Until today, I… I didn't know."

Alex nodded, finally seeing that Eva didn't want to discuss it any further. "I'll tell you one thing, though," he said, smiling slightly.

"What?"

"If I were you, I wouldn't tell the Doctor that there's someone studying his life," Alex replied. "From what you told me, you'll never get his ego to deflate again."

"No," Eva agreed, laughing shortly despite the small burn in his arm. "I most certainly won't."


	6. Cause I Die

Eva took a deep breath before walking out of the car. Last night, when she got the call from Jack, she told him to try to call a future version of her, but the call kept coming to her.

By the fifth time, she told him she'll be there in the morning and went on to convince the Master to let her go.

"Jack needs me there," she said. "He can't get any different me on the phone because I'm the only version who's currently within reach."

"Have him try again," the Master growled.

"He tried again," Eva replied. "He gets me, every time. I'll only be away for a couple of days."

"The length of the visit is not what's worrying me," the Master told her. "It's the implications if any of them would make the connection between Eva Miller and Eva Saxon."

"They won't," Eva told him. "I'll hide my hair, and Archangel would take care of the rest."

"Archangel isn't one hundred percent."

"But it's enough," she said. "I'll make sure it's enough, I promise."

The Master thought for several long moments before making his decision.

"You must hide your hair at all times," he warned. "And if anyone finds out, there will be consequences. I may not be able to kill Jack, but his team are still humans."

"Nobody will find out," Eva said, hoping she'll be able to keep the promise.

Now, she walked through the doors of the Torchwood Hub, her hair hidden in a beanie as she looked around the place.

"Evie?" a voice asked, and Eva nearly started crying at the sight of Jack.

She didn't see him in close to a year. It's been close to a year since the end of the universe. The realization that she spent a year living as Eva Saxon made her heart clench.

"Jack!" Eva called out, not waiting a moment in jumping on him in a tight hug.

"Woah!" he laughed, eagerly hugging her back. "What did I do to deserve this?"

"Nothing," Eva muttered into his chest. "Sorry, I just… I didn't see you in a while."

"As long as you're here now," Jack smiled, pulling away from the hug. "I trust I don't need to tell you what we're dealing with here?"

"Out of Time," Eva nodded. "Three people landed just outside the city yesterday. Trick is – they departed from 1953."

"Good," Jack smiled. "By the way, have you met the team yet?"

"Yup," Eva nodded, taking Jack's hand in hers as they walked towards where the three time travellers waited. "Have they met me?"

"You met Owen and Tosh a couple of years ago," he replied. "And you already know Ianto, of course – a bit of a warning would have been nice, by the way," he added, and Eva shrugged.

"Where would be the fun in that?" she asked. "What about Gwen?"

"Haven't met you yet," the woman herself replied from where she stood by the trio from the 50s. "Heard a lot about you, though."

"It's all lies," Eva told her. "Don't believe a word Jack says. Hello," she turned to Emma, Diane and John. "My name is Eva Miller, I'm a close friend of Jack's. He brought me in to help you get better accustomed to this time."

"Eva's quite an expert in all of that," Jack said.

"You…" Emma started carefully. "You time travelled, too?"

"Yes and no," Eva replied. "I do time travel, but not exactly like you did. I jump away quite often, and have been to both the past and the future. Jack asked me to come because of my experience in getting used to living in a different time era than the one I originally came from. Jack?" she added, and the man nodded.

Next to them, Gwen pulled out three ID cards and passed them to the three accordingly.

"These will be your means of identification," Jack explained. "We've set up bank accounts for you but we'll give you an allowance so you can practice with the currency and money management."

"David Ward," John read out, his tone betraying the annoyance he felt with the situation.

"Sally-Anne Hope," Diane read hers out.

"Deborah Morrison," Emma finished, sounding a lot more content than her companions, "And it's spelt how Deborah Kerr spells it."

"Your background stories should incorporate your skills," Jack added. "John, you could have run a corner shop –"

"No," John cut him off. "We can fake references. You can't take away our names," he said desperately, and Eva took a deep breath, remembering the day she read out the name Eva Saxon off an ID card. "For God's sake, it's all we've got left. It's my son's name, it's the name above my shop!"

He threw the card on the table, turning to leave. Jack looked at Eva for support only to find her shrugging.

"He's right, you know," she said. "The one thing I always kept, no matter when I got to, was my name. You can't ask them to give up theirs."

Jack took a deep breath, stepping closer to John. "You're right," he said, glancing at Eva. "I didn't think. You should keep your name."

John nodded and, seeing the situation was starting to get better, Eva smiled.

"So," she said. "Shopping, anyone?"

 **EMH**

Going shopping with Diane, Emma and John was an experience Eva wouldn't have traded for anything – even if it meant she spent a good number of hours with Ianto.

It wasn't that she had a problem with the man, it was just that out of the whole Cardiff crew, he was the one at highest risk of figuring out she was Eva Saxon, other than that. He could sign himself to death if he said the wrong word, so Eva didn't want to give him a chance to say the wrong word.

"How much food money have I got left?" Emma asked, looking at the shelf of candies.

"15.40," Ianto replied, and Eva laughed as the young woman threw a little of everything into her basket.

"Don't," she said when Ianto opened his mouth to comment. "Let her have some fun. In the meanwhile, though," she added, nodding towards John who had just found the magazine section of the shop.

"They sell films in boxes," Diane was telling Emma excitedly a few minutes later, "And you can watch them at home."

"I love going to the pictures!" Emma said happily, looking at the CD package.

When they finally – " _Finally_ ," Ianto stressed – got to the register, it was only for Diane to march towards them nervously.

"You all right?" Ianto asked.

Diane lifted a box of cigarettes, displaying the 'Smoking Kills' sign on it. "What does that mean?"

Eva let out a short laugh, taking the other woman's hand in hers.

"Have one of mine," she offered. "The warning only says it causes impotence."

"Okay," Diane nodded in relief, and Eva hurried outside before Ianto could reveal that this wasn't really how it works. "I never smoked those before," she said, looking at the cigarette Eva offered her curiously.

"Didn't expect you would," Eva replied, lighting both their cigarettes. "The brand only started selling in the late eighties to early nineties. Makes it a bit annoying sometimes when I'm stuck in the past. Let me tell you, Victorian London was great about a lot of things but normal cigarettes was _not_ one of them."

Diane looked at her for a moment before nodding, letting out a short laugh as she took a drag of her cigarette. "It was nice of you," she said. "To come when Jack asked you to. To be here to help us."

"Don't mention it," Eva told her honestly. "Jack asked, so I came."

"But you left a lot of things behind when doing so," Diane noted. "I've travelled for long enough. I know how it looks when you have other issues bothering you and you try to run away from it."

"Yes, well…" Eva sighed. "Things are… tense at home right now, for lack of better word. My… friend," she settled, "Wasn't all too happy about me coming here. But Jack needed me, so I came."

"You're very close to him," Diane said. "Are the two of you…?"

"God, no," Eva said, choking on her smoke.

"I wouldn't judge, you know," Diane told her. "I'm a lot less conservative than those two." She nodded towards where Emma, John and Ianto stood, waiting for the two of them. "I've had my fair share of sex before marriage."

"No, but really," Eva insisted. "Jack and I are not… and we'll never be… just the thought of it makes me want to puke."

Diane raised a brow. "He's not _that_ bad looking, you know."

"Trust me, I know," Eva muttered, thinking about the short-lived crush she had on John Barrowman back in her universe. "It's just that… he's like family to me," she finally said. "It's just weird."

"If you say so," Diane said, finishing her cigarette. "I'd talk about it with him, if I were you," she added. "Whatever it is that's bothering you at home. Maybe he can help."

"I can't tell him," Eva replied. "I wish I could, but… if he knows – if _anyone_ knows, it could put their life in danger. I can't do that to him."

Diane nodded, offering the other woman her hand. Eva gladly took it, and together the two of them joined the rest of their little gang, entering the car and driving away.

 **EMH**

Later that day found Eva standing next to Gwen and Emma, the two from present day looking at John disapprovingly while Emma looked mostly embarrassed.

"I don't see why she got you two involved," John said.

"She called us," Eva replied, leaving out the fact that Emma was in tears when she called.

"She was upset," Gwen added.

"She was drinking," John told them.

"I only had half a glass –"

"Enough to make a show of yourself," John cut Emma off, drawing on Eva's nerves.

She knew his story, knew what would happen to him, but there was no need to get his frustrations out on the poor girl.

"She was only having fun," she defended. "Trust me, from experience, you can make a fine show out of yourself completely sober and no one would give half a damn."

"But we're not the same as you," John snapped, turning to Emma. "We can't trust anyone."

Gwen hesitated before looking at the other woman. "Will you be okay now, Emma?" she asked.

"Don't worry," John interrupted before Emma could say anything. "I won't let her out of my sight again."

He marked at the plates in front of him, signaling her to sit down. Emma stared at him angrily, tears in her eyes.

"I don't like liver," she said.

"Sit down, young lady, and be grateful for what you're given –"

"And why should I listen to you?"

"Emma," Gwen started.

"Don't," Eva cut her off. "It's best for her to let it out.

"Only my dad gets to talk to me like that," Emma went on, "And I'm never going to see him again, am I? Or my mum, or my best friend, or my dog, and I miss them. And I hate this filthy, stinking place!"

Emma stormed out in tears, and Eva sighed, glancing at Gwen.

"I'll handle her," she said. "You'll handle _him_." And before John had a moment to protest, she was already following Emma out the door.

"I – I can't –" the woman cried as she slammed the door behind her. "I just want to go _home_."

"I know," Eva said, pulling her into a tight hug. "I know, honey." She waited a couple of minutes until she saw Emma calmed down enough again. "Can I tell you something about myself? Something not a lot of others know?"

"O-Okay," Emma sniffed, pulling back from the hug.

"I'm not from here, either," Eva admitted. "I'm not from another time, thought, no… but I am from another universe. I got here almost two years ago, and I had nothing. My friends have no idea who I am, my parents aren't even married here. My brother and sister were never born. And, for a while, I couldn't focus on anything other than the fact that I lost everything I had. But I moved on."

"How?" Emma asked. "How can you move on from something like that?"

"Because you have no choice," Eva replied. "Because if you don't move on, you'll be stuck in your sorrow forever. I made new friends here. I created my own family. I got by, and so could you."

"I could?" Emma asked in disbelief.

"Of course you could," Eva told her with a small smile. "Here's what we're going to do for now – you'll spend the night at my place, it's just across the street from the Hub. Tomorrow, we'll see what we can do to help you build a new life here. Is that alright with you?"

"I… I guess," Emma muttered. "It sure is better than going back in there with _him_."

"Amen to that, sister."

 **EMH**

"Yes," Ianto heard Eva mutter into the phone. "Yes, I _know_ , Alex. No, nobody knows. Yes, I – how daft do you think I am? I won't tell them! A couple of days, at the very least. Yeah, events are already starting to unroll – Emma moved out last night. Took her to my flat." There was a short pause before Eva spoke again. "It's weird," she said. "Hard, knowing I won't see him again for another six months, and that after that…" she trailed off. "Am I? Cause it sure doesn't feel like it."

Ianto moved closer, trying to hear more of the conversation and accidently hitting the dining room table.

"Gotta go," Eva said. "I think Emma woke up. Yeah, I'll call tonight. Bye." She hung up the phone, starting to walk towards the living room. "Emma?" she asked. "Did you sleep well? Emma?" She paused at the doorway, looking at Ianto. "Oh. Hi."

"Hey," Ianto said. "I came in to check on the both of you. Did you sleep well?"

Eva swallowed hard, eyeing him suspiciously. "How much did you hear?" she asked.

"Enough," Ianto replied, seeing the cat was already out of the bag. "You're Eva –"

"Don't!" Eva quickly said, cutting him off before he could finish the sentence. Her flat might be clear from bugging devices – she checked – but that didn't mean she wanted Emma to hear. Who knows where the girl might repeat it. "Ianto, if they find out that you know, they'll kill you. You can't tell anyone about this."

"The beanie," Ianto repeated, finally seeing that Eva's bleached blond hair was revealed. "How did a _beanie_ …?"

"Long story," Eva said shortly. "Even I don't believe some of it, and I've lived it."

"Are you undercover, or something?"

"Or something," Eva sighed, making Ianto's eyes widened.

"You're a prisoner," he stated.

"Can you please stop overthinking this?" Eva asked.

"Sorry, no," Ianto shrugged. "Girl who showed up and saved me out of nowhere turns out to be a really close friend of my boss and a hostage of the leading candidate for Prime Minister, these sort of things kinda mess you up a bit."

"If he knows that you figured it out, he'll kill you," Eva told him. "He'll kill everyone else, too, if you told anyone. Please, Ianto, you have to forget about this –"

"Forget?" Ianto repeated. "How am I supposed to just _forget_ something like this?"

"Figure out a way," Eva replied. "Please, Ianto, I… he doesn't hurt me," she said. "Never lays a finger on me. I have enough freedom to go to uni – I had enough freedom to get you the car for Canary Wharf. I've got this under control, and this won't last for much longer. It'll end soon."

Ianto hesitated for a moment. "He doesn't hurt you?" he verified.

"Never," Eva promised.

"He never tried anything… funny?"

"Not even once."

Ianto sighed before taking a deep breath. "When this is over, you come straight to tell me, alright?" he asked. "Promise me you'll tell me the moment it's over."

"I promise," Eva said, hoping that would be enough.

Hoping Ianto would drop the subject and not get himself killed.

 **EMH**

Two days later, Eva headed back to Saxon Manor after dropping Emma off.

After Ianto stopped by the flat, he joined Eva and Emma for a nice, relaxing day in the city. They spent most of the time explaining Emma about the cultural and society changes the world had gone through in fifty years, but the true challenge didn't occur until that night when Eva and Emma went out to a club.

Giving 'The Talk' to a grown woman was not something Eva ever thought she'd have to do – nor anything she wanted to repeat ever again.

The morning after that, Emma went to a job interview and was offered a job on the spot in a new branch of the shop in London. A farewell round later, with Eva telling Jack she'd call more often and avoiding Ianto's accusing look at the false promise, and the two young women were back in the car on their way to London.

"I have a flat round there, too," Eva said, looking at the note on which Jack scribbled the address. "You could stay there until you've settled down enough to get a flat of your own." She also bought the woman from their fifties a new cellphone and, after explaining to her how to use the device, put her number in it. "If there's anything you need, anything at all, feel free to call me," she told her. "It's going to be rough for a while, but you're not alone in this, okay?"

Emma nodded, pulling her into another tight hug before kissing her cheek in farewell.

"Thank you so much for your help," she said. "I won't forget you, Eva. And… I'll try and stay in touch."

Eva smiled softly. She had met enough people to know when someone wasn't going to keep up to their promise – not because they didn't want to, but because life got in the way. She preferred it that way, though. Emma deserved a chance at a life of her own.

She didn't expect the Master to wait for her at the edge of the road leading to the house, offering his hand to walk her in.

"What?" he asked when he saw the surprised look on her face. "Haven't seen you in three days, I wanted to make sure you came back home safely."

"It's freezing out here," Eva said.

"Time Lord Biology," the Master shrugged. "Not that bad. So, how was your little trip?"

"It was good," Eva said. "I managed to do what I came there to do. I… I helped."

"Glad to hear," he smiled. "And I'm also glad to see that nobody found out. I have to admit, I didn't think you'd be able to pull this off, but… you surprised me. By the way," he added before Eva could completely comprehend the previous sentence, "I did a bit of research on Captain Jack while you were gone."

"You…" Eva swallowed nervously. "You did?"

"Yup," the Master nodded. "Truly, he's quite an interesting person – born on Earth in the 51st century and later moved to the Bohemian Hemisphere, spent all of the past century and some living in Cardiff, I'm fairly certain he's the Face of Boe, and, well," he laughed shortly. "His mother's name was Merida. What a coincidence is that?"

Despite the cold, Eva stopped walking. She looked up at the Master, fear evident in her eyes. "What?" she asked, her voice shaking.

"I know, right?" the Master smiled. "Did you tell him? That he's your dad, that is. I'll take that as a 'no'," he added when Eva didn't reply. "My, my, you do keep an awful lot of secrets, don't you? This really isn't healthy," he tutted. "Someone ought to do something about it."

He flashed Eva another smile and headed back into the house, leaving her outside, too shocked to move. A shiver ran down her spine, and it had nothing to do with the cold outside.


	7. Without You

**A/N:** **So it is now 11pm and I only just realized it's November 23rd, aka the Doctor Who Anniversary... So I'm posting this today instead of tomorrow :-)**

* * *

Christmas Eve of that year was a major change from the one that proceeded it.

For one, Eva and the Master weren't alone this time – they had Alex, who had only grown closer to Eva as time went by, and Lucy, who now went publicly by the name Lucy Saxon and made sure to arrange a proper Christmas Dinner for the four of them.

Of course, it could have been nice if the Master hadn't been called away because of the appearance of the Christmas Star above London's skies.

Eva stood on the roof next to Lucy and Alex, observing the Star from afar. It wasn't as much as close to Saxon Mansion, but the three still felt uneasy about its presence. Alex had a hand on his gun, ready to protect the two women on a moment's notice. Lucy bit the inside of her cheek, scared, nervous and anxious for her husband to come back.

Eva wasn't scared, anxious or worried, but she was far more nervous than the other two combined.

A week prior, the Master noticed that Eva was thinking of the Doctor more and more often as Christmas approached, and had her sitting in the living room for a conversation – as he referred to it, Eva preferred to use the term 'Interrogation'.

"Well?" he asked after a few long minutes of silence. "I can sit here all day, if that's what it takes. What will the Doctor do on Christmas?"

"I already told you," Eva said through gritted teeth. "This is an event that should never be changed. It wouldn't matter if I told you."

"I disagree," the Master replied. "You see, I'd like to be… prepared."

"There's nothing for you to be prepared for."

"Really?" he questioned. "Do you mean to tell me that what's going to happen isn't going to affect me at all? Can you tell me that I would be able to peacefully stay at home while events unfolded?" Eva didn't bother to reply. The answer was clear to both of them. "Didn't think so. Let's make it simpler," he said. "Professor Lazarus had just hired a new assistant by the name of Letitia Jones –"

"Don't hurt her!" Eva said quickly. "You – you can't hurt her. If you do then – then Martha will never travel with the Doctor long enough to get to the end of the universe. You'll be changing your personal history!"

"I won't kill her," the Master said, shaking his head. "I only need to hurt her enough to make a small difference. She could still keep working if, let's say, she was bound to a wheelchair."

Eva took a shaky breath, closing her eyes. He couldn't do this – he couldn't get her to do whatever he wanted just by threatening people she cared about.

But he could. And that was exactly what was happening. Alex's words from months back rang in her ears. She had to figure out what could she tell him without changing the way events should unfold.

When she finally spoke, she pictured Donna's face when the woman found out Lance sold her out to the Racnoss Empress, "Give the order."

"I'm sorry?"

"You'll understand when it's time," was all Eva said. "Give the order."

Now, she watched with Alex and Lucy as the Star was shot down by multiple missiles, the debris dissolving in the air before it could reach the ground. She fell to the ground, her legs no longer holding her up, and Alex quickly reached out to grab her.

He carried her to her room and left her on the bed where she cried for hours. She cried because the Doctor was _so close_ , and she couldn't reach him. She cried because Donna was going to marry today, and now she had to start from nothing again. She cried because she sealed the fate of an entire species of aliens, albeit a murderous one.

Most of all, she cried because she didn't care about all the lives lost, as long as Tish was safe.

This may have been the first time the Master used the power he had over her to get her to tell him what she knew, but it was clear to see it wouldn't be the last. And if these were the consequences of this time… she dreaded to think what would happen next.

 **EMH**

As hard as it was for Eva to admit considering everything that happened in the past year, she couldn't deny the Master did everything he could to ensure she enjoyed her second birthday with him as much as possible.

He woke her up that morning with breakfast to bed, making sure to take off her bracelet before her brain went fully into thinking mode, and told her that he had an entire day planned for their mismatched family – though he hadn't used those exact words. He had cleared the entire day of meetings and interviews, and made sure to let out false information of him being in other parts of the city than the ones he planned for the to attend, in order to throw the reporters off their backs.

They started the day by having a calm morning at the Mansion. Eva didn't expect the gifts Lucy and the Master handed to her, and she was even more surprised when Alex pulled out a gift of his own.

From Lucy, she got a beautiful dress that she had already changed into. The Master had gifted her with a pair of earrings that matched her bracelet in style and design but not in the uncomfortable side effects. Alex surprised her the most, somehow managing to acquire one of the paintings of her drawn from the time when she was Queen Elizabeth's ward.

"Wow," Lucy said as she helped to put the painting up in one of the rooms, "I thought it was just a story."

"Don't take it too hard," Eva said, looking at the painting with mixed emotions of amusement and embarrassment at having it put up in a room at the Mansion. "Sometimes, _I_ think it was all just a story."

From there, they moved on to a small, secluded restaurant Lucy used to frequent with her family. As annoyed as Eva was when their lunch was interrupted by reporters, it was far too amusing to watch the Master get angry about it.

"It's okay," she told him when they finally moved on from the restaurant and went to try and find somewhere else for lunch. "I know you tried."

"But you _hate_ the reporters," he said. "I wanted to at least make sure you didn't have to deal with them on your birthday."

"And it was a very nice thought," Eva replied. "But I'm still the daughter of Harold Saxon, and reporters are part of what it entails. Don't worry about it."

Even the small remains of annoyance were gone from both of them when the Master led them to the last event of the day.

" _Rent_?" Eva repeated in disbelief. "We're going to see _Rent_?"

"I remembered you saying you were about to go see it with your friend," the Master replied with a smile as they took their seats. "Never got to do it with her, so I thought you'd appreciate doing it now."

"I… I do," Eva admitted, letting out a small smile. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

Later on, the Master rethought that statement. _Rent_ was, to say the least… odd. Unlike _Sweeny Todd_ , which was a horror musical about old London town, this one was modern – the events, though fictional, took place only a decade and a half earlier – and, more than that, it was tragic.

"It's not tragic," Eva said when he told her that. "It's the opposite – it's about hope. These people don't live the American Dream, they're not even close to it. They have their struggles – money, drugs, _HIV_ – but they go on. They _live_. They may not always win, but as long as they're still fighting, they never lose, either."

"Well, it certainly was…" Lucy started, struggling to find the right word. "Quite… vulgar, don't you think?"

" _Sweeny Todd_ was about cannibalism," Eva told her shortly. "This wasn't any more vulgar than that."

"It was different, I think," the Master said, wrapping an arm around Eva. "Either way, I'm glad you liked it."

"I loved it," Eva told him, wrapping her own arms around him. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," the Master said again, though this time he knew he won't question the sincerity of his words later on. "Happy birthday, Evie."

 **EMH**

Eva stood at the side of the stage, glancing at Alex nervously.

"Do I really have to?" she asked for what he was certain was the thousandth time.

"You know you do," he sighed.

"Why can't you come with me?"

"You know why."

"Sasha…"

" _Linny_ …"

Eva slapped Alex on the arm half-playfully before frowning. Ever since he found out about this nickname variation of her name and how much it annoyed her, he used it as a retort whenever she called him 'Sasha'. Admittedly, it had caused her to use the name less often, but it still slipped every now and then, and he would always answer the same way.

Though she knew it would stop him from calling her that, she didn't tell him she hated the nickname. It made her think of her younger Jack, living with Jack in Cardiff of the thirty first century. That thought made her think of Cardiff of the twenty first century, and of the promise she made to Ianto.

It made her think of the fact in about twenty four hours, the Master will be officially elected as Prime Minister of Great Britain. In less than forty eight hours, the Doctor, Martha and Jack will return from where the Master left them stranded on the end of the universe. And, in less than sixty hours, the Master will take over Earth and the Year That Never Was will begin.

The Master had already called her to his office a month prior, knowing that the Doctor's return was ought to be close to Election Day. This time, Eva didn't waste time arguing.

"The day after elections," she stated. "May I go now?"

Now was the night before elections, and Eva was about to go on stage and start the last of a long series of interviews. She will sit there, smile and tell jokes, and try to convince people to vote for the psychopathic alien with the charming smile, the beautiful wife and the loveable daughter.

It was, for lack of better phrase, nerve-wrecking.

"How long?" she asked quietly.

"Thirty seconds," Alex replied, glancing at his watch. "They're going to call you any second now."

"Better get ready, then," Eva sighed, taking a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Don't forget to smile," Alex said, and the two fell into a comfortable silence as the interviewer of the talk show spoke.

"And now," he said, "You all know her – the young woman who quickly became our very own national sweetheart. Only 21 and the heiress of one of the most influential families in Britain, her face is on the front page of almost every newspaper, please give it up for Miss Eva Saxon!"

Eva put on her most practiced smile as she walked on stage, waving at the crowd and sending the occasional kiss before sitting down.

"So, the interviewer said, leaning forward in his seat and closer to her. "Wow! Where do we even start?"

"The beginning seems to be a favourable option," Eva joked.

"That it does, that it does," he laughed. "But, when it comes to you, where is the beginning?"

"At the opposite side than the end, I'd assume?"

Again, the interviewer and the crowd laughed, and Eva smiled in response.

"Well, we might as well pick a spot and go on from there," the interviewer commented, looking through his cards. "We know quite a lot about you, considering your father's position as lead runner to the Prime Minister post at the moment, but let's hear your side of events, shall we? You just graduated second year of university, didn't you?"

"I did," Eva confirmed. "I study History at UCL."

"Quite an interesting choice, considering your father's job."

"Is it?" Eva questioned. "We study our history because it tends to repeat itself. By looking at the past, we can use it in order to create a better future – and, in the end, isn't this what we all aspire to achieve?"

Her smile was perfect, every break in her sentences deliberate. Lucy sat with her for hours, teaching her how to attend to an interview, how to respond to every question. Her answers were practiced and memorized, but she knew how to make it seem as if she spoke freely.

 _Just another day,_ she told herself. _Just another day before he's Prime Minister, and I can drop the act. One more day._

"Well, when you say it like that…" the interviewer smiled. "Speaking of the past, I know it's not as far back as the topics you study but what can you tell us about the events of the past couple of days?"

"Honestly?" Eva shrugged. "Nothing."

"Come on," the interviewer tried. "Royal Hope Hospital disappeared for hours before reappearing, and the people on board claim they travelled to the moon. Just an hour ago, we received reports of an alien-like creature creating havoc in the Lazarus labs. Is there really nothing you can tell us?"

"Dad makes sure to keep work as separate from home as he can," Eva replied. "He says that Lucy and I already have too much public focus in our personal lives. When it's just the three of us at home, we try to be as normal a family as we can."

"And here is the point where I think you for so kindly preparing me for the next question," the interviewer smiled. "Lucy Cole – now Saxon. After twenty years of just you and your father, it couldn't have been easy to add another person to the mix. Especially not when that person is your father's significantly younger wife."

"What do you call significantly younger?" Eva asked.

"Well, she _is_ closer to your age than she is to his."

"At a matter of fact, she isn't," Eva replied. "You need to remember that my father had me at a very young age. The age difference between Lucy and I is quite similar to the age difference between the two of them – eight years in comparison to nine. I don't believe that counts as significantly younger. And," she added, "While I don't believe I'll grow to see Lucy as my mother, that is mostly because I'm already a grown woman myself. I don't feel the need for a mother figure in my life, but I still see Lucy as a very close friend."

"So it seems," the interviewer said. "We have numerous pictures of the two of you walking hand in hand across London."

"We like spending time together," Eva said simply. "I'm sure if you keep looking you'll find that, when he can, Dad joins us, as well. We're a family. An unconventional one, but a family nonetheless."

"Not something to be taken for granted, I'm sure," the interviewer said, smiling softly at her. "Our time is almost up. Is there anything else you'd like to say to our viewers before it's time to go?"

"Well…" Eva smiled. "There's one thing, but I'm sure you all already know it…" She looked right at the camera, and focused on the countdown until this nightmare was over as she put on her brightest smile. "Vote Saxon!"


	8. Seeing Him

Eva looked at the street, a dark expression marring her otherwise kind features. The Master had won the elections. In less than twenty four hours, he would take over the world.

And, today, the Doctor was due to come back to London.

She wasn't sure what she was going to do when she saw him again. There was a storm of emotions coursing through her, and she didn't know if she wanted to yell at him for leaving her alone or hold him tight and never let him go again.

Alex and her went out on a walk in the city to clear her mind before they needed to arrive at Downing Street, but the only result was that Eva looked at all of the people who were about to enter a year of hell – not that they'd remember it, mind, but they will live it nonetheless.

Any thought she might have had over the past eighteen months to stop the Master's plan was no longer relevant. The events were already set into motion, and now it was too late.

Unbeknown to her, at an alleyway not far away from where she stood, three people appeared seemingly out of thin air.

"Oh, my head," the only woman of the trio complained, leaning on the nearest wall.

"Time travel without a capsule," one of the men told her. "That's a killer."

"Still," the third man said as they walked out of the alley and into the street, "At least we made it. Earth, twenty first century by the looks of it. Talk about lucky."

"That wasn't luck," the other man said, looking around. "That was me."

"The moral is, if you're going to get stuck at the end of the universe, get stuck with an ex-Time Agent and his vortex manipulator."

The trio sat down, observing the people around them. The Doctor wore a frown on his features and the way his eyes darted around betrayed his nervousness. Jack was also nervous, but his eyes looked towards the Doctor, awaiting further instructions from the man he trusted most. Martha was the first to talk.

"But this Master bloke, he's got the TARDIS," she said. "He could be anywhere in time and space."

"No, he's here," the Doctor said, shaking his head slightly. The Master was here, and so was Eva. "Trust me."

"Who is he, anyway?" Martha questioned. "And that voice at the end, that wasn't the Professor."

"If the Master's a Time Lord, then he must have regenerated," Jack reasoned.

"What does that mean?"

"It means he's changed his face, voice, body, everything," Jack explained as the Doctor's eyes focused on a man who was tapping a rhythm on his tin mug nearby. "New man."

"Then how are we going to find him?" Martha asked, worried.

"I'll know him, the moment I see him," the Doctor replied. "Time Lords always do."

"But hold on," Martha said, looking around at the election posters around them. "If he could be anyone… we missed the election. But it can't be," she added in fear.

They stood up, watching a newswoman speak on a big screen nearby.

 _"Mister Saxon has returned from the Palace and is greeting the crowd inside Saxon Headquarters."_

"I said I knew that voice," Martha said. "When he spoke inside the TARDIS… I've heard that voice hundreds of times. I've seen him. We all have," she told the other two. "That was the voice of Harold Saxon."

"That's him," the Doctor said, staring at the screen in disbelief. "He's Prime Minister."

The three were so focused on the screen that they didn't see the young woman who had just rounded the corner and the man who accompanied her. She, however, did see them.

Eva's wrist burnt with pain unlike anything else that she felt in the eighteen months since she put it on, and her head spun. She didn't even notice that Alex reached out to hold her until she tried to walk to the Doctor and his grip held her back.

"You can't," he said. "Not yet – it's too dangerous."

"He's here," Eva whispered, tears burning in her eyes. "He's finally here…"

"I know, but we have to get back now," Alex urged. "Eva, they're expecting us at Downing Street soon, and we need to go."

"But…" Eva whispered, looking at the Doctor. He leaned in to say something to Jack and Martha before the three of them turned away and left, not paying attention to the distraught woman at the other side of the square from them. "He didn't even notice me. How could he not notice me?"

"The same way the rest of the people here didn't notice that the daughter of Harold Saxon is here," Alex said. "You'll see him again, Eva. You'll see him soon."

"But he…" Eva's eyes burnt as she fought to keep the tears down. "He didn't see me."

She didn't say another word as they made their way back to where the car was parked and off to Downing Street.

 **EMH**

"Home," Martha sighed in relief as they walked in.

"What have you got?" the Doctor asked before she could allow herself to calm down. "Computer, laptop, anything. Jack, who are you phoning?" he asked. "You can't tell anyone we're here."

"Just some friends of mine," Jack said before swallowing nervously, "But there's no reply."

"Here you go," Martha said, handing them her laptop. "Any good?"

"I can show you the Saxon websites," Jack said, grabbing the laptop and setting it on the table. "He's been around for ages."

"That's so weird though," Martha muttered. "It's the day after the election. That's only four days after I met you and Eva."

"This Eva haven't even met you yet," the Doctor muttered. "We went flying all around the universe while they was here all the time."

"Are you going to tell us who he is?"

"He's a Time Lord," the Doctor said simply.

"What about the rest of it?" Martha questioned. "I mean, who'd call himself the Master?"

"And what does he have to do with Eva?" Jack added.

"He's…" the Doctor started. "He's weird around her. That's all you need to know. Come on," he added, leaning closer to the laptop. "Show me Harold Saxon."

A series of videos popped on the screen, Sharon Osbourne, McFly, Ann Widdecombe and others all declaring their support to Saxon. The clip ended with an extract from an interview that was taken two days ago of Eva smiling at the camera as she repeated the 'Vote Saxon!' slogan.

"Former Minister of Defence," Jack read out. "First came to prominence when he shot down the Racnoss on Christmas Eve. Nice work, by the way," he added, glancing at the more-than-worried Doctor.

"Oh, thanks."

"But he goes back years," Martha said. "He's famous. Everyone knows his story. Look. Cambridge University, Rugby blue. Won the Athletics thing. Wrote a novel, went into business, a kid, marriage, everything. He's got a whole life."

"A whole fake life," the Doctor said, looking at the picture of Eva Saxon. "That's Eva. She's acting as his daughter."

"Wait…" Jack muttered. "I saw her."

"Yes," the Doctor said. "That's Eva."

"No, you don't understand," Jack replied. "I saw _her_ , this Eva, she came to help me with something in Cardiff back in December."

He swallowed hard before going to the kitchen, making tea to calm himself down.

"Did you notice anything wrong?" the Doctor asked.

"No," Jack replied. "Nothing seemed weird, nothing seemed odd. She just… she stopped by for a few days and then left. Said she was in the middle of something in London."

"I guess now you know what," Martha muttered.

"But they've got the TARDIS," Jack tried. "Maybe the Master went back in time and they have been living here for decades."

"No," the Doctor said, suddenly thanking his quick thinking when the Master pulled Eva into the TARDIS. He may have not been able to save her, but at least he could spare her living for decades with the Master. Still, if Jack saw her in December…

"Why not?" Jack asked. "Worked for me."

"When he was stealing the TARDIS, the only thing I could do was fuse the coordinates," the Doctor replied. "I locked them permanently. He can only travel between the year one hundred trillion and the last place the TARDIS landed. Which is right here, right now."

"Yeah, but a little leeway?" Jack asked. "After all, Eva arrived to see me about six months ago, how long before that could she have been here?"

"Well…" the Doctor hesitated. "Eighteen months. Tops. The most they could have been here is eighteen months. So how has he managed all this? The Master was always sort of hypnotic, but this is on a massive scale."

"And why did Eva let him?" Martha added. "If she knew this was going to happen… I mean, did she?"

"Eva knows what would have happened if she didn't exist," the Doctor sighed. "If she knew that without her interference, the Master would become Harold Saxon and win the elections, then she had to let it happen."

"Yes, but between that and helping him?" Martha asked. "She could have at least tried."

"She did," Jack said. "Back at the end of the universe, right after you found me. She tried to make us go away."

The Doctor closed his eyes, Eva's words echoing in his ears.

 _"Please. I can't go through it, I just can't. Please, I don't want it to happen, please, let's… let's just go back into the TARDIS. Fly away. Please…"_

"She did," he said. "And we didn't listen."

She was so scared, back there. She was terrified at the prospect of the Master returning. He promised he'd stay with her, he promised that he'd keep her safe, and he didn't. He didn't even hesitate when he ran away with Jack to the radiation chamber, and he didn't think twice when Martha joined them.

He didn't take Eva's warnings seriously until it was too late, and then the Master grabbed her and pulled her into the TARDIS with him. He didn't know how long she was here, only that it was something between six and eighteen months, but it was far too long.

"I was going to vote for him," Martha said, breaking the silence.

"Really?" the Doctor asked in disbelief.

"Well, it was before I even met you," Martha replied. "And I liked him."

"Me too."

"Why do you say that?" the Doctor asked, turning to look at Jack. "What was his policy? What did he stand for?"

"I don't know," Martha said, starting to tap a rhythm on her hand. "He always sounded… good. Like you could trust him. Just… nice. He spoke about… I can't really remember, but it was good. Just the sound of his voice…"

"What's that?" the Doctor asked, cutting her off.

"What?" Martha asked, confused.

"That," the Doctor said, marking to her hand just as she stopped tapping. "That tapping, that rhythm. What are you doing?"

"I don't know," Martha defended. "It's nothing. It's just… I don't know."

The Doctor looked at her for another moment, but he didn't believe her. There was something going on, something that he hadn't figured out yet. He knew one thing for sure, though – whatever it was, it was connected to the reason none of them recognized Eva Miller and Eva Saxon were the same person.

 **EMH**

"Eva!" the Master called happily as she walked into his new office, where they were about to start filming the first official message to the public from the new Prime Minister. "And just in time, too! How was your day out?"

"Fine," Eva replied shortly, trying to ignore the pain on her wrist as the burns slowly healed. She glanced around, making sure nobody other than Alex was listening before asking, "How many people did you kill already?"

The Master paused, looking at the cameramen nearby. "One," he said. "But she was onto us, I had to stop her! We can't let the truth get out. Not when we're this close to the endgame."

"Just the one reporter?" Eva questioned, raising her brow. "Nobody else?"

The Master grimaced. "And, maybe, I might have also killed the entire cabinet. Perhaps. But you already knew that, didn't you?" he asked with a small smile. "Back to being the Omniscient we all know and love."

"Don't call me that."

"Why not?" the Master asked. "It's true."

"Sir?" one of the crewmen asked. "Thirty seconds till we air."

"Better get ready," the Master said, kissing the top of Eva's head. "Go stand next to Lucy. Be pretty for me."

"They're not going to film me, you know," Eva sighed, but she took her place next to Lucy nonetheless.

The older woman reached out for her hand and the two of them watched silently as the cameraman counted back to zero, and the broadcast began.

"Britain, Britain, Britain," the Master said, looking right into the camera with ease that Eva couldn't quite understand, even after months of interviews. "What extraordinary times we've had. Just a few years ago, this world was so small. And then they came, out of the unknown, falling from the skies. You've seen it happen.

"Big Ben destroyed," he said, and Eva knew that those at home could see the imagery from when it happened. "A spaceship over London." The Sycorax that arrived to Earth just after the Doctor regenerated. "All those ghosts and metal men." Doomsday, one of the worst days of the Doctor's – and by connection, Eva's – life. "The Christmas star that came to kill." The Racnoss ship that the Master shot down.

"Time and time again, and the government told you nothing," the Master went on, and Eva could feel, more than see, Lucy crossing her fingers. "Well, not me. Not Harold Saxon! Because my purpose here today is to tell you this: Citizens of Great Britain, I have been contacted." The people in the room couldn't help but look at each other, murmuring in disbelief as the Master went on, "A message for humanity, from beyond the stars."

"People of the Earth," one of the Toclafane said, appearing on a screen by their side. "We come in peace. We bring great gifts. We bring technology and wisdom and protection. And all we ask in return is your friendship."

"Ooo," the Master smiled as Lucy let out a short laugh. Eva forced herself to let the corners of her mouth turn up in case anyone was watching. "Sweet. And this species has identified itself. They are called the Toclafane. And tomorrow morning, they will appear. Not in secret," he added, "But to all of you. Diplomatic relations with a new species will begin. Tomorrow, we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman and child. Every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer. Oh, I don't know," the Master let a smirk overtake his smile for a moment as he added, "Every medical student?"

The transmission was over and the Master stood up, going straight towards Eva and Lucy as the crew started to dissemble the cameras in the room.

"So," he asked, "How was I?"

"You were brilliant," Lucy informed him, pulling him into a short kiss. "Absolutely –"

"Fantastic?" Eva offered dryly, drawing the Master's attention to her. From the corner of her eye she saw Tish leaving the room and knew that the woman will soon be arrested.

"Eva," the Master smiled, taking her hands in his. "What do you think?"

"I think…" Eva started, looking to the sides to see the entire crew was gone. "I think that the Doctor, Martha and Jack managed to get away from the explosion, and that you are about to get a call from the blonde bitch at the Jones house any moment now."

Just as she finished talking, the Master's phone rang. He looked at it for a moment before answering, putting it on speaker.

 _"Mr. Saxon, we have condition red on the Jones plan. We're taking them in. All of them."_

The Master smiled, kissing Eva's cheek lightly. "Come with me," he said, holding out his hand. "There's something I think you'll be happy to hear."


	9. Hearing Him

The Doctor's mind was racing as they walked out of the car Martha parked in an underpass of some sort. He was trying to make sense of all of the information, but it didn't seem to add up.

The Master was Prime Minister. Weird, certainly not preferable, but he could at least somehow understand how that happened. Eva was pretending to be his daughter and not stopping his plans. Again, not ideal, but nobody had any right to judge her since they didn't know how long she was stuck here with him. Martha's family being taken into custody was to be expected on a certain level, as was Jack's friends being out of reach.

But the Toclafane? They couldn't be real. They were a story. A fairy tale. _Not_ real.

Behind him, Martha was making a phone call to her brother but he didn't pay her much attention. Though, perhaps, he should have, since there were currently two people listening in to it that shouldn't have been.

Eva sat across from the Master, swallowing hard as she heard Martha warn her brother. She couldn't bear to look at him or at the speaker, instead choosing to focus on the rapidly healing burns on her wrist.

The Master took the bracelet off, though he said she'll get it back as soon as he deactivated the part that makes her wrist burn whenever she was thinking of the Doctor.

"He's here now, so it's not very fair towards you, is it?" he asked. "Probably should have thought of it this morning, but then again there's only so much I could have done. He didn't arrive until you were outside."

Eva didn't say anything in reply.

Now, the Master couldn't hide his pleased smile as he heard Martha all but freak out over the phone, almost begging her brother to listen to her.

"Ooo," he said in a tone that could have been mistaken for excitement for anyone else, "A nice little game of hide and seek. I love that. But I'll find you, Martha Jones. Been a long time since we saw each other. Must be, what," he winked at Eva, "One hundred trillion years?"

"Let them go, Saxon," Martha growled before her voice turned angry. "Do you hear me?! Let them go!"

"I'm here."

The voice cut her off, but neither of the people in the room cared much about it. What Martha had to say went right above their heads at the presence of the Doctor. The Master glanced at Eva, putting a finger to his lips to signal her silence as his expression darkened.

"Doctor," he said.

"Master," the Doctor replied and the Master closed his eyes for a moment.

"I like it when you use my name."

"You chose it," the Doctor reminded him. "Psychiatrist's field day."

Eva let out a silent snort of laughter, but still couldn't quite bear to look up from the table.

"As you chose yours," the Master said, glancing at Eva with clear annoyance. "The man who makes people better. How sanctimonious is that?"

"So," the Doctor quickly changed the topic of conversation. "Prime Minister, then."

"I know," the Master smiled. "It's good, isn't it?"

"And Eva?"

At that, the Master frowned again, sending Eva a look that ordered her to remain silent. "Safe," he said. "That's all you need to know."

On the other end of the line, the Doctor took a deep breath. He knew that the chances of the Master telling him where Eva was were slim, but he still had to try. Shaking his head, he moved to the next topic on his mind.

"Who are those creatures?" he asked. "Because there's no such thing as the Toclafane. It's just a made up name, like the Bogeyman."

"Do you remember all those fairy tales about the Toclafane when we were kids back home?" the Master asked. "Where is it, Doctor?"

The Doctor took a deep breath. "Gone."

"How can Gallifrey be gone?" the Master asked angrily, standing up.

"It burnt," the Doctor said simply.

"And the Time Lords?"

"Dead," the Doctor replied. "And the Daleks, more or less. What happened to you?"

"The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I'd be the perfect warrior for a Time War," the Master explained. "I was there when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform. I saw it. I ran. I ran so far. Made myself human so they would never find me, because I was so scared."

"I know," the Doctor sighed.

"All of them?" the Master repeated, glancing at Eva for confirmation. "But not you, which must mean…"

"I was the only one who could end it," the Doctor told him. "And I tried. I did. I tried everything."

"What did it feel like, though?" the Master questioned, walking towards Eva. It felt like he was asking her the question as much as he was asking the Doctor, and she closed her eyes at the pain she knew the Doctor was currently feeling. "Two almighty civilisations burning. Oh, tell me, how did that feel?"

"Stop it!" the Doctor ordered, but he couldn't quite make it as intimidating as he probably intended it to be.

"You must have been like God!"

"It's been just me and Eva ever since," the Doctor said and Eva opened her eyes again, looking at the speaker.

She didn't say anything, but she knew the Master understood her silent request. _Please, let me talk to him._

"But not anymore," the Doctor went on, unaware that anything was even happening on the other end of the line. "Don't you see? All we've got is each other."

"Are you asking me out on a date?" the Master joked, and again Eva found a small smile slipping through.

"You could stop this right now," the Doctor tried. "We could leave this planet. We can fight across the constellations, if that's what you want, but not on Earth."

The Master smirked. "You know, for a second there I thought you were going to ask me to spare Eva," he taunted, reminding the Doctor that the young woman was still his prisoner. "Not spare Earth."

"As much as it pains me to admit, you wouldn't hurt Eva," the Doctor said. "And, even if you tried, she can handle herself." Eva took a deep breath, fighting to stop herself from barging into the conversation. To find out that the Doctor thought she was capable of handling herself – and to hear him say it, even though he didn't know she was listening in – was almost too much after the past year and a half. "Earth can't – not for another few centuries, at least," the Doctor went on, unaware of the impact his words had. "Just leave it alone."

"Too late," the Master said coldly.

"Why do you say that?"

"The drumming," the Master replied, tapping the four-beat on the table repeatedly. "Can't you hear it? I thought it would stop, but it never does. Never ever stops. Inside my head, the drumming, Doctor. The constant drumming."

"I could help you," the Doctor said. "Please, let me help."

"It's everywhere," the Master said, tapping faster and louder than before. "Listen, listen, listen. Here come the drums. Here come the drums."

The Doctor's eyes widened as he saw a man nearby tapping the beat of four. "What have you done?" he asked. "Tell me how you've done this. What are those creatures?" The Master said nothing and the Doctor added, more desperately than before, "Where's Eva?!"

"Please," Eva whispered. "Please, let me talk to him."

The Master looked at her for a moment before saying, loud enough for the Doctor to hear, "You have one minute."

"What?" the Doctor asked, confused, and Eva quickly leaned forwards.

"Doctor?" she asked.

"Eva?"

Near where he stood, the Doctor could see Jack and Martha turn their heads at the sound of Eva's name, but none of them moved closer. He wasn't sure if it was because they realized he needed privacy or because they had trouble of their own at the moment, but either way he was grateful they stayed away.

"Doctor," Eva repeated, feeling relief at being able to talk to him – at being able to say his name without the bracelet burning her wrist. "Doctor. Doctor."

"Eva, we don't have much time," the Doctor said, being the first to snap back into his senses. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"I'm fine," Eva said, glancing at the remains of the burns on her wrist. It will heal in a matter of hours at most, and what the Doctor didn't know wouldn't hurt him or make him feel any more guilt than he was probably already feeling. "He didn't hurt me," she lied.

The Doctor let out a shaky breath. "Eva, I am so, so sorry…"

"We don't have time for that right now," Eva said. "How long you said in Martha's flat, about the leeway, that's how long have been."

The Doctor swallowed hard. Eighteen months. It's been eighteen months. He opened his mouth to apologize again, only for Eva to cut him off.

"And I'm sorry for making you do this," she added, glancing at the Master. "But I need you to tell Jack my middle name."

"What?" the Doctor asked, confused. "Why?"

"There's no time to explain," Eva replied, knowing that the seconds were ticking by. "I'm sorry the two of you have to find out that way. And, Doctor…"

"Time's up," the Master said sharply and Eva jumped back at his harsh tone, too scared to talk.

"No," the Doctor said. "Eva? Why do I need to tell Jack your middle name? Why are you sorry?"

"I'm afraid Eva can't talk right now," the Master said in a sing-song voice. "Sorry to disappoint."

"Why can't she talk?" the Doctor asked. "Master, what have you done?"

"Oh, look," the Master smiled, turning on a news feed using his laptop. "You're on TV."

"Stop it," the Doctor ordered. "Answer me."

"No, really," the Master went on. "You're on telly. You and your little band, which, by the way, is ticking every demographic box. So, congratulations on that. Look, there you are," he added, and Eva knew that the Doctor had just seen his face on a television in the street. "You're public enemies number one, two and three. Oh, and you can tell handsome Jack that I've sent his little gang off on a wild goose chase to the Himalayas, so he won't be getting any help from them."

Eva swallowed hard as the Master pressed a button, changing the images on screen from the news feed to a security camera's feed that showed the Doctor, Jack and Martha looking at a shop's window.

"Now, go on, off you go," the Master said. "Why not start by turning to the right?"

The Doctor did just that, his eyes quickly finding the security camera the Master used to watch him. "He can see us," he said, using his sonic screwdriver to burn the camera's circuits.

"Oh, you public menace," the Master said. "Better start running. Go on, _run_."

"He's got control of everything," the Doctor's voice rang through the speaker.

"What do we do?" Martha asked.

"We've got nowhere to go," Jack said.

"Doctor, what do we do?"

"Run, Doctor!" the Master called out, even though the Doctor was no longer listening. "Run for your life!"

The Doctor swallowed hard, knowing there was only one thing left for him to do. "We run."

With that, the call hung off and Eva was left sitting silently as the Master smiled.

"Better go off now," he told her. "We'll need to catch a night flight to get on the Valliant, and you should probably rest before we do. What?" he added impatiently, seeing for the first time the tears that shone in her eyes.

"I…" Eva started. "I barely got to talk to him."

The Master sneered, a dark expression Eva didn't often get to see settling on his face. "You're lucky that you got to talk to him at all," he said. "Go on, now. Wouldn't want you to be late."

Eva didn't allow herself to cry until the door was closed behind her back.

 **EMH**

Jack looked at the Doctor from where the Time Lord sat across from him. The two of them were currently hiding in an abandoned warehouse while Martha went out to get them something to eat, and the Doctor was searching for information on the laptop he took from Martha's flat before it exploded.

For the past few hours, Jack has been trying to figure out a way to approach the matter that had been on his mind since the Doctor was on the phone with the Master. He was trying to think how he could do it without being too straightforward but, slowly starting to understand that wasn't an option, he decided to just go at it.

 _Like ripping off a Band-Aid,_ he thought to himself, taking a deep breath to brace himself for the conversation about to occur.

"You talked to Eva."

The Doctor didn't look up, but he did pause his typing on the laptop. "Yes," he said shortly. "Only for about a minute, though."

"What did she say?" Jack asked, curious. Eva has been a major part of his life from the day he met the Doctor, and had been the only connection to the life he had before turning immortal in the century and a half he had been waiting in Cardiff.

"Not much," the Doctor sighed, raising his head to look at him. "She said that what I said about the leeway in Martha's flat was right. They've been here for eighteen months."

Jack let out a heavy breath. A year and a half was a long time, and he didn't think he could ever forgive himself for not noticing something was wrong when she came to visit him in Cardiff.

In fact, the more that he thought about it the more likely it seemed that this Eva – Eva Saxon – that saved Ianto at the Battle of Canary Wharf last summer. And as soon as that thought came to his mind he realized that, unlike him, Ianto managed to make the connection between this Eva and Jack's Eva, and had probably confronted her about it.

And that brought up the question of what Eva said to get Ianto to drop the subject off, because if there was one thing Jack knew, it was that Ianto didn't drop things off easily.

"Did she say anything else?" he asked, trying not to dwell on that for too long.

"Yes," the Doctor sighed. "She… she asked me to tell you her middle name."

"What?" This time, there was more confusion in Jack's voice than anything else. "Why?"

"No idea."

Jack waited for about a minute before speaking again.

"Well?" he asked.

"What?" the Doctor asked.

"Do you know Eva's middle name?"

"Of course I know Eva's middle name!" the Doctor said. "I've known her for seven hundred years and have been with her for half that time – yes, I know her middle name."

"What is it, then?" Jack asked, growing even more impatient when the Doctor fell silent once more. "Doctor?"

"Merida," the Doctor said, and Jack felt his heart stopping. "Her full name is Evangeline Merida Miller. Why?" he asked, carefully examining Jack's reaction. "Does it mean anything to you?"

"Yes." Jack wasn't sure who was more surprised with the answer – him or the Doctor. "But… it couldn't be. I never told anyone that name. Not even Eva, and she knows more about me than anybody else."

"What is it?" the Doctor asked. "Jack, who's Merida?"

"Merida was…" Jack took a shaky breath. "Merida was my mom. She died not long after I joined the Time Agency. But I never told anyone about that. And, even if I did… why would it matter? Doctor?" he asked when the man in front of him didn't reply. "Do you know why?"

"I think I might," the Doctor sighed. "Eva… a few times, when we were having fights, she threatened to go to her dad's place. I wouldn't have given it much thought until I realized that she was saying these things throughout Earth's 20th century, and a few times when we were millions of years in the future and hundreds of light years away."

"I don't understand," Jack said, shaking his head. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say that Eva's dad is an immortal that lived on Earth for the whole course of the 20th century," the Doctor said. "And that her middle name is your mom's name."

"You don't say that…?" Jack started, pausing in shock. "Doctor, I'll be the last to say I don't sleep around often, but I'm always careful – and, in the few times I wasn't, I knew. There's no way I had a child I didn't know about."

"I'm not saying that there is," the Doctor said. "At least, not yet. You see," he took a deep breath, "Eva was born in the 31st century."

Jack's eyes widened slightly, and he quickly looked away from the Doctor and stood up, pacing back and forth.

Could this really be? Could Eva be his daughter? And, if she was, why didn't she ever say anything?

He didn't stop his pacing until Martha came back, a bag of something he hoped was food in her hands.

"How was it?" he asked.

"I don't think anyone saw me," Martha replied. "Anything new?"

 _Well, we just found out that Eva is my daughter from about a thousand years into the future,_ Jack thought, but didn't say aloud. He needed more time to comprehend this before he'll be able to share this with other people.

"I've got this tuned to government wavelengths so we can follow what Saxon's doing," he said instead, marking at his Vortex Manipulator.

"Yeah, I meant about my family," Martha said, annoyed and worried.

The Doctor was the one to speak this time. "It still says the Jones family taken in for questioning," he said, his eyes going through the information on the laptop. "Tell you what, though. No mention of Leo."

"He's not as daft as he looks," Martha said, though her smile faded away quickly. "I'm talking about my brother on the run. How did this happen?"

"Nice chips," Jack commented, eating from the bag Martha handed to him.

"Actually, they're not bad," the Doctor agreed thoughtfully.

The group fell into a long silence, during which Martha and Jack exchanged a series of worried looks. Eventually, Jack asked the question he knew would lead to yet another difficult conversation.

"So, Doctor," he started, "Who is he? How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?"

"And what is he to you?" Martha added. "Like a colleague or…?"

"A friend, at first," the Doctor replied and Martha let out a shaky laugh.

"I thought you were going to say he was your secret brother or something."

The Doctor looked at her in bewilderment. "You've been watching too much TV."

"But all the legends of Gallifrey made it sound so perfect," Jack went on.

"Well, perfect to look at, maybe," the Doctor shrugged. "And it was. It was beautiful. They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. And on the Continent of Wild Endeavour, in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords, the oldest and most mighty race in the universe, looking down on the galaxies below. Sworn never to interfere, only to watch. Children of Gallifrey, taken from their families at the age of eight to enter the Academy," he explained. "And some say that's when it all began. When he was a child. That's when the Master saw eternity.

"As a novice, he was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the Untempered Schism." The Doctor's eyes stared forward, as if seeing something that the other two couldn't. "It's a gap in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. You stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of time and space, just a child. Some would be inspired. Some would run away. And some would go mad." He snapped out of his trance-like state, shaking his head, and sighed, "I don't know."

"What about you?" Martha asked.

"Oh, the ones that ran away," the Doctor said as if it was obvious. "I never stopped."

"What about Eva, though?" Martha pressed, making Jack tense in his seat. "You said that the Master was your friend at first, but now he's, like, your arch-nemesis. What is he to Eva?"

"It's more difficult," the Doctor said. "Neither of us meet her in a way that even resembles linear. But the first time she met him, he used her to try to get to me. The second time, he killed her, the third, he saved her and every other time I've seen them together they were… well…"

"What?" Jack asked.

"Friends." Again, the Doctor sighed. "I guess this is when it all started."


	10. Meeting Him

The silence that followed this statement was broken by the sound of Jack's Vortex Manipulator beeping. Martha and the Doctor jumped in surprise as Jack started typing in on it.

"Encrypted channel with files attached," he muttered. "Don't recognise it."

"Patch it through to the laptop," the Doctor said, and Jack grimaced slightly.

"Since we're telling stories, there's something I haven't told you," he said, loading the information on the laptop and avoiding the Doctor's eyes when the Torchwood logo popped up.

"You work for Torchwood." The Doctor's tone was angry, accusing.

"I swear to you, it's different," Jack quickly said. "It's changed. There's only half a dozen of us now –"

"Everything Torchwood did, and you're part of it?"

"I did what I could when I was stuck in 1869, okay?" Jack asked. "I had Eva visiting me about once a decade, but the rest of the time I had to get along on my own. The old regime was destroyed at Canary Wharf," he added. "I rebuilt it, I changed it, and when I did that, I did it for you in your honour."

The Doctor paused, thinking back to something Eva told him what felt like centuries ago.

 _"You were gone,"_ she said. They were with Queen Victoria at the events that led to the establishment of the very organization they were just discussing. _"I had to get along."_

The Doctor didn't say anything as he hit the play button.

 _"If I haven't returned to my desk by twenty two hundred, this file will be emailed to Torchwood,"_ the woman who appeared on screen said. _"Which means if you're watching this, then I'm… Anyway, the Saxon files are attached. But take a look at the Archangel document. That's when it all started. When Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the Archangel Network."_

"What's the Archangel Network?" The Doctor asked as soon as the woman finished talking, and Martha quickly pulled out her phone.

"I've got Archangel," she said. "Everyone's got it."

"It's a mobile phone network," Jack said, loading the files on the laptop. "Because look, it's gone worldwide. They've got fifteen satellites in orbit. Even the other networks, they're all carried by Archangel."

"It's in the phones!" the Doctor called out in understanding, grabbing Martha's phone. "Oh, I said he was a hypnotist. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on." He scanned the phone with his sonic screwdriver before lightly tapping it against the table. Almost immediately, the phone started beeping out the same four-beat rhythm that he had been noticing all day long. "There it is," he said. "That rhythm, it's everywhere, ticking away in the subconscious."

"What is it," Martha asked, "Mind control?"

"No, no, no, no, no," the Doctor quickly said. "It's subtler than that. Any stronger and people would question it. But contained in that rhythm, in layers of code, Vote Saxon. Believe in me. Whispering to the world. Oh, yes!" he called out in understanding. "That's how he hid himself from me, that's how he hid Eva! Because I should have sensed there was another Time Lord on Earth, and there were way too many people who should have made the connection between Eva Miller and Eva Saxon ages ago. The signal cancelled them out."

"Any way you can stop it?" Jack asked.

"Not from down here," the Doctor shook his head. "But now we know how he's doing it!"

"And we can fight back!" Martha added, making the Doctor smile brightly.

"Oh, yes!"

 **EMH**

Eva stood at the airport next to Lucy and the Master, a fake smile on her face as President Winters approached. The Master saluted and Eva had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

It won't be long until she no longer had to put up with this act of the perfect daughter. Then again, when that will happen the Year That Never Was will be in motion and the man in front of her will be dead, but those were problems she will attend when time for them arrives.

"Mr. President, sir," the Master said.

"Mr. Saxon," Winters said, not amused in the least, "The British Army will stand down. From now on, UNIT has control of this operation."

"You make it sound like an invasion," the Master commented, feigning confusion.

"First Contact policy was decided by the Security Council in 1968," the President replied. "And you've just gone and ignored it."

"Well, you know what it's like," the Master shrugged. "New job, all that paperwork. I think it's down the back of the settee. I _did_ have a quick look," he told him. "I found a pen, a sweet, a bus ticket and… er… have you met the wife and kid?"

Eva forced the smile to stay on her face despite being referred to as a kid.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. President," she said, making Winters look at her for a moment before deciding to ignore her and turn back to the Master.

"Mr. Saxon, I'm not sure what your game is but there are provisions at the United Nations to have you removed from office unless you are very, very careful. Is that understood?" The Master nodded shortly before pretending to zip his lips shut. "Are you taking this seriously?" The Master nodded and Winters sighed before moving on. "To business. We've accessed your files on these Toclafane. First Contact cannot take place on any sovereign soil. To that purpose, the aircraft carrier Valiant is en route. The rendezvous will take place there at eight am."

"Mm mmmm mmm mmm?" the Master asked, pretending to not be able to talk due to his mouth being zipped.

If Eva wasn't so tense, she might have laughed at the absurdity of it all, but Winters didn't seem as amused as her.

"You're trying my patience, sir," he said tightly.

The Master pretended to un-zip his lips before asking, "So America is completely in charge?"

"Since Britain elected an ass, yes!" the President declared. "I'll see you onboard the Valiant."

"It still will be televised, though, won't it?" the Master asked as Winters walked away. "Because I promised, and the whole world is watching."

"Since it's too late to pull out, the world _will_ be watching," Winters told him. "Me!"

He walked away and the Master smiled, leaning in closer to Lucy and Eva.

"The last President of America," he whispered before raising the tone of his voice slightly. "We have a private plane ready and waiting," he told the two of them. "We should reach the Valiant within the hour. My darlings," he added, marking them to follow the soldiers that led them away towards the plane.

Eva walked without protest, only sparing a moment to look back at where the Doctor, Martha and Jack were standing. As her eyes met the Doctor's, it was only Alex's tight grip on her arm that stopped her from running to hug him and never let go.

 **EMH**

"Europe now online," a woman's voice declared over the speaker system as Eva, Lucy and the Master entered the main room of the Valliant through the lift. "Awaiting confirmation from South America. And keep tracking Japan."

Eva's fingers were intertwined with Lucy's, the two of them walking next to the Master and looking at the place with undisguised awe. If not for the other's woman tight grip and Alex's supporting presence, Eva was certain that she wouldn't have been able to stand through the nerves that were driving her mad.

"I want the whole thing branded in my suit of office, not the UN," Winters told someone. "You got that?"

"Anything I can do?" the Master said, going straight to the President, the two women following him. "I could make the tea, or isn't that American enough? I don't know, I could make grits," he shrugged. "What are grits, anyway?"

"It you could just sit," Winters said, his tone the one of someone who had long since ran out of patience.

The Master pulled up a face as they walked away. "Misery guts," he muttered before turning to Eva and Lucy. "What do you think?" he asked, marking at the space around them as he pulled two chairs out for them. "It's good, isn't it?"

"It's beautiful," Lucy sighed as she sat down.

"It really is… something else," Eva settled. She couldn't truly bring her to admire the room, knowing what would happen here in the next year.

"Some of my best work," the Master said, either not noticing or not caring that the compliment wasn't honest. "Ministry of Defence. I helped design this place. _Every_ detail."

"Two minutes, everyone," Winters declared, walking to his place at the top of the stairs, right in front of the cameras. "According to the treaty, all armed personnel are requested to leave the flight deck immediately. Thank you."

 _"Five,"_ a voice said over the sound system as the Master pulled out a small paper bag. _"Four, three, two, one."_

"Jelly baby?" he offered, and Lucy accepted happily while Eva declined with a small shake of her head, fighting the urge to run away.

"Broadcasting at seven fifty eight with the arrival timed for eight hundred hours exactly," Winters said. "And, er… good luck to all of us."

He waited impatiently, looking at his watch as he waited for the transmission to start. Less than a minute later, the cameraman gave the mark and Winters started speaking.

"My fellow Americans, patriots, people of the world," he said. "I stand before you today as ambassador for humanity, a role I will undertake with the utmost solemnity. Perhaps our Toclafane cousins can offer us much, but what is important is not that we gain material benefits, but that we learn to see ourselves anew."

From the corner of her eye, Eva could see the Doctor walking into the room with Jack and Martha in toe, but she didn't dare looking in fear of someone noticing.

"For as long as man has looked at the stars, he has wondered what mysteries they hold," Winters said, unaware of the three new people in the room. "Now we know we are not alone. No longer unique in the universe. And I ask you now," he went on, "I ask of the human race, to join with me in welcoming our friends. I give you the Toclafane."

If one was looking, they could physically see the breath leaving nearly everyone in the room as the Toclafane arrived. As it was, everyone were too busy looking at the four spheres to pay attention to anything like that.

"My name is Arthur Coleman Winters, President Elect of the United States of America, and designated representative of the United Nations," Winters said, radiating confidence. "I welcome you to the planet Earth and its associated moon."

"You're not the Master," one of the spheres said.

"We like the Mister Master," another told him.

"We don't like you," a third joined in.

"I can be master, if you so wish," Winters said, misunderstanding the true meaning behind the Toclafane's words. "I will accept mastery over you, if that is God's will."

"Man is stupid," one of the Toclafane said what both Eva and the Master were thinking.

"Master is our friend."

"Where's my Master, pretty please?"

"Oh, all right then," the Master said, standing up with a bright smile. "It's me. _Ta da!_ Sorry, sorry, I have this effect," he explained. "People just get obsessed. Is it the smile? Is it the aftershave? Is it the capacity to laugh at myself? I don't know. It's crazy!"

"Saxon, what are you talking about?" Winters asked.

"I'm taking control, Uncle Sam," the Master replied. "Starting with you. Kill him."

Eva closed her eyes before the Toclafane shot the President, keeping them shut tight as the guards pulled out their weapons, taking comfort in that Alex chose to give his up in order to stay with her.

Lucy stood up, running to stand closer to the Master and the rest of the people present in the room stumbled away from the table, leaving only Eva standing next to it, grasping Alex's arm for both physical and mental support.

"Now then, peoples of the Earth," the Master said and Eva shivered as she remembered the message the Master sent out to the universe just before Four's regeneration. "Please attend carefully."

She didn't get to think of it in length, though, as the Doctor pulled the TARDIS key off his neck in one quick motion and ran towards the Master, only for two men to grab him.

"No!" she said, trying to get out of Alex's grip, but he was holding her too tightly.

"We meet at last, Doctor," the Master said before laughing joyfully. "Oh, ho. I love saying that!"

"Stop it!" the Doctor called out. "Stop it now!"

"As if a perception filter's going to work on me," the Master huffed. "It didn't even work on Eva… oh, I guess you know her little secret now, don't you?" He turned to look at where Jack and Martha stood. "And look, it's the girlie and the freak. Although, I'm not sure which one's which."

Jack ran forward and Eva let out a scream as the Master hit him right in the chest using his laser screwdriver, making him fall to the ground.

"Laser screwdriver," the Master said. "Who'd have sonic? And the good thing is, he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again!"

"Master, just calm down," the Doctor begged. "Just look at what you're doing. Just stop. If you could see yourself –"

"Oh, do excuse me," the Master said, looking at the camera. "Little bit of personal business. Back in a minute. Let him go," he told the guards who held the Doctor before glancing at Alex. "Her, too."

The Time Lord and the Time Jumper fell to the floor, and Eva hurried to where the Doctor was, holding him tightly. She knew what was coming next, and she wanted to be with him when it did.

"It's that sound," the Doctor said, keeping an arm wrapped tightly around Eva as he looked at the Master. "The sound in your head. What if I could help?"

"Oh, how to shut him up?" the Master asked, looking at Eva. "I know! Memory Lane." He sat down, his eyes finally at the same level as Eva and the Doctor. "Professor Lazarus. Remember him and his genetic manipulation device? What, did you think that little Tish got that job merely by coincidence? I've been laying traps for you all this time. And if I can concentrate all that Lazarus technology into one little screwdriver?

"But, ooo," he sighed, "If I only had the Doctor's biological code – oh, wait a minute, I do!" the Master grinned as he opened a large briefcase, revealing the Doctor's hand inside. "I've got his hand. And if Lazarus made himself younger, what if I reverse it? Another hundred years?"

Even though Eva was the one who knew what was going to happen all along, the Doctor was the one who acted. He pushed Eva away, making sure she didn't accidently receive any of the energy the Master fired at him.

Eva screamed first, not in physical pain but at the pain of knowing what was going to happen next. The Doctor screamed in agony as every cell in his body aged rapidly, turning his body into that of an old man's. Eva knew that Jack revived behind her, but that was purely due to her foreknowledge.

She couldn't focus on anything other than the Doctor's convulsing body.

When it was finally over the Doctor fell to the ground and Eva quickly moved to hold him, Martha quickly joining them.

"It's okay," Eva whispered. "It's alright. I'm here now."

"We've got you," Martha added, drawing the Master's attention to her.

"Ah, she's a would be doctor," The Master said. "But tonight, Martha Jones, we've flown them in all the way from prison!"

Eva didn't dare looking up as a guard pushed Martha's family into the room. This was all on her. She was the one who let the Master do this. She was the one who didn't stop him. This was _her_ fault.

"Mum," she heard Martha whispered.

"I'm sorry," Francine cried, finally understanding how badly she misjudged Saxon.

"The Toclafane," the Doctor breathed out, making Eva hold him tightly again and the Master to lean down closer to be able to hear him. "What are they? Who are they?"

"Doctor," he Master sighed, putting a hand to the Doctor's chest, "If I told you the truth, your hearts would break."

"Is it time?" one of the Toclafane asked. "Is it ready?"

"Is the machine singing?"

"Two minutes past," the Master smiled, looking at his watch before turning to the camera. "So, Earthings. Basically, er… end of the world." Eva swallowed hard, holding on to the Doctor even tighter as the Master raised his screwdriver in the air, activating the paradox machine. "Here come the drums!"

 _"Here come the drums. Here come the drums."_

Eva jumped at the loud song that started blaring through the speaker, and she could feel the Doctor holding her closer in response, as tightly as he could considering that, physically, he was an old man now.

Lucy started dancing to the music and the Master smiled, holding her hand and leading her to the window where they could see the spheres descending to the ground.

"How many do you think?" he asked quietly in her ear.

"I…" Lucy muttered, awed at the sight. "I don't know."

"Six _billion_ ," the Master said, flicking a switch so that his voice could be heard clearly even outside the ship. "Down you go, kids!" He watched gleefully as the spheres arrived to ground level. "Shall we decimate them?" he asked Lucy. "That sounds good. A nice word, decimate. Remove one tenth of the population!"

The Doctor used the Master's distraction to whisper instructions in Martha's ear before turning to look at Eva.

"Go with her," he said. "Get away from here."

"No," Eva replied. There was no way she was going to leave him. Not now, not when she was finally with him again.

"I wasn't asking," the Doctor told her.

"Neither was I." Eva swallowed hard, turning to look at Martha. "Go, now. Before you lose your chance."

Martha slowly stood up as the sounds of the world's countries crying for help was heard through the various transmitters in the room. She sent one last look at her family, then at Jack before turning to where Eva and the Doctor sat, whispering angrily and holding on to each other as if their lives depended on it.

She swallowed hard before teleporting away, and the trio still on the ground exchanged a solemn nod. The Master turned around, an angry expression crossing his face before he pushed the Doctor and Eva away from each other, grabbing the other Time Lord and dragging him to the window.

Jack was quick to grab Eva, holding her in a tight embrace as they watched Lucy and the Master force the Doctor to look at the slaughter outside the window.

"And so it came to pass that the human race fell, and the Earth was no more," the Master said, looking more manic than ever before. "And I looked down upon my new dominion as Master of all, and I thought it _good_."


	11. In Truths That She Learned

The Master threw the Doctor back to the ground as the guards escorted the people on the ship to what would soon become their cells. He crawled back to where Eva and Jack were huddled, the young woman pulling him into a tight hug.

"I'm sorry," she cried. "I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," the Doctor said, hugging her back. "I'm the one who should be sorry."

"I let this happen," Eva whispered, shocked at her own behaviour.

"I let him take you."

"Oh…" the Master mocked, making the three huddle closer together. "It's so cute I think I'm going to cry. Or vomit," he added in disgust. "Guards."

At the command, two guards forced the Doctor away from Eva, and it was only Jack's hands holding her close that stopped her from jumping after him.

"No!" she called out, trying futilely to fight against the arms that held her back. "Please, no! Don't hurt him, Master, please…"

"It's okay," the Doctor said once more. "I'll be fine, Evie."

"Nobody was talking to you," the Master snapped at him, turning his attention back to Eva. "Let's make a deal," he offered. "You'll go with Alex, without putting up a fight, and I promise you'll see Daddy Dearest again by the end of the week."

His words had made just the effect he was seeking.

The Doctor immediately started wishing that Eva would go without a fight, since seeing someone she cares about again soon would be good for both of them and more than what most of the people on the ship could hope for. Jack all but prayed that Eva would go easily, mainly so that he could know she wasn't hurt in any way. Eva was torn between the need to stay with one of her closest friends and the desire not to upset the Master too much, so that he won't take it out on the rest of the people aboard.

All three of them couldn't help but think about the newfound fact that Jack was Eva's biological father, and that she had kept that information hidden from them for years.

"Go," Jack finally said. "I'll be fine."

"No, you wouldn't be."

Jack swallowed hard. He had guessed that much by the Master's excitement at killing him, but hearing it coming from Eva's mouth had an entirely different effect.

"Go," he repeated, helping Eva up and into Alex's arms before fixing the other man with a piercing glare. "Keep her safe," he ordered. "Because if I find out that she was hurt on your watch, I don't care what hellhole he's going to throw me in – I'm coming after you."

"Yes, sir," Alex replied, glancing at the Master with a look that showed the truth about his feelings towards the man for the first time in the year since he had grown closer to Eva.

It may have been Saxon signing his pay check, and the Master in control now, but that was not where his loyalties laid. Rather, they were placed with the barely functioning young woman in his arms who, despite what he knew many of the ship personal thought, was just as much a prisoner as the rest of them.

"Come on, Evie," he said quietly, leading her away. "Let's get you to your room."

They walked through the corridors and Eva could only wonder how Alex knew which direction to go. When he finally came to a stop and opened the door to her chambers, Eva broke down.

Once again, she was presented with an exact replica of her room. Her room back home, her room at the TARDIS, her room at Saxon Manor. Alex held her tightly as she cried, her anger at herself and the tension of the past few days finally catching up with her.

She fell asleep in his arms.

 **EMH**

When she woke up, Eva imagined for several long moments that it was all a dream. Not just the End of the World or her time with the Master on Earth – for the first time in years, she imagined that she was still back home with her Mum and Dad, that she will hear them fighting at the room next door or that at any moment Mike or Nyssa will call her for dinner.

Instead, she heard guards calling out orders and people scrambling to do as they said, scared of the consequences of disobeying a madman.

Her eyes opened against her will and she found herself laying in her bed, still wearing the clothes from the day before. Alex sat by the door, his head resting on his shoulder in a position that gave away the fact that he didn't mean to fall asleep where he was.

She stood up and carefully neared him. She knew Alex often had nightmares, brought on him by years in the army, and she didn't want to scare him too much but she did want to wake him. It didn't seem like a very comfortable position to sleep in. Gently, she shook his shoulder.

Alex immediately opened his eyes, snapping to attention with his hand reaching for his gun.

"It's okay," Eva whispered next to him. "Just me."

"Eva," Alex breathed out. "You scared me."

"I could say the same thing," Eva replied. "How long was I asleep?"

"Slept the whole day and the night following," Alex said, pulling both of them to their feet. "Out like a light, you were. Didn't even make it to the bed."

"Sorry," Eva muttered.

"Don't be," Alex replied without hesitating. "Think of the bright side. One day down…"

"365 to go," Eva whispered in response. Alex didn't waste a moment in pulling her closer, his arms engulfing her in a tight hug. "Thank you for being here for me," she whispered.

"Don't mention it," Alex shrugged.

"What would I have done without you?"

"Wither and die."

At that, Eva pulled back from the hug, looking at her friend in disbelief. "I cannot _believe_ you just made a Buffy reference," she muttered.

"First of all, it was an Angel reference –"

"Same thing!"

"And second of all," he went on as if she hadn't interrupted, "You're the one who understood it, so…"

"Shut up," Eva laughed, pausing as she saw the look on Alex's face.

He was nervous, he was scared, and yet he was doing everything he could to make her laugh even in this tough situation. He was one of her best friends, bodyguard or not, and she truly had no idea what would she have done without him.

She stood on her tiptoes, kissing his cheek lightly before pulling him back into a hug. Neither of them was sure how long they stood like this, but they didn't move until they were interrupted by a knock on the door. Alex smiled sadly as he took a step back.

"Come in," he said, and the door opened slowly to reveal Tish.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting," she said, before hurriedly adding, "Ma'am. I have been appointed as your personal maid."

Eva swallowed hard, shame rising in her, but Alex was the one who spoke.

"Don't," he said sharply. "A bird in a beautiful cage is still a bird in a cage. Eva's just as much as a prisoner as anyone else on the ship."

"She's Saxon's daughter," Tish replied, glancing at the woman in question.

"Not biologically," Eva said quietly. "Jack's my biological father. But I've been a prisoner for a while, now. And you should probably start referring to him as 'Master'," she added as an afterthought. "Saxon had never been his real name, and I expect him to start punishing those who don't address him accordingly soon."

Tish studied Eva for a long moment before speaking. "A while?"

"Eighteen months for me," Eva replied. "About two days for the Doctor, Jack and Martha."

At the sound of her sister's name Tish swallowed hard, remembering there was a reason she was sent here to begin with. "Sa- the Master," she corrected herself, "Was wondering if you liked anything to eat."

Try as she might have, Tish wasn't able to keep the envy completely out of her voice. Eva raised a brow, taking a step closer to her.

"Tish," she started carefully, "Did you eat breakfast this morning?"

"No, ma'am."

"Don't call me ma'am," Eva quickly said, though her tone wasn't as angry as Tish probably expected it to be. "Did you eat anything since the Master took over? Anything at all?" Slowly, Tish shook her head and Eva sighed in determination. "Here's what you're going to do," she said. "Go to the Master and tell him I am very hungry – in fact, tell him I'm starving. Hungry enough to eat for three, at least," she added, looking at the other two in the room with a small smile.

Tish returned the smile for a moment before hurrying out the room, intent on relaying the message back to the Master as soon as possible.

 **EMH**

Eva expected the Master to appear in her room in response to the request of food for three people. What she didn't expect was for him to barge inside mere minutes after Tish left, rage in his every feature.

"Leave us," he ordered Alex, who hesitated in response.

"Go," Eva told him simply. She wasn't sure how she still knew it with as much certainty as before, but the Master wouldn't purposely harm her. Not physically, at least.

The Master was silent for several long moments, observing Eva before speaking, "I heard you were hungry."

"Starving," Eva replied. "Enough to eat for –"

"For three," the Master completed the sentence for her. "Yes, so I've been told."

Eva swallowed hard. "You can't starve the staff," she said.

"Why?"

"Because they need to eat," she replied through gritted teeth. "They need food to function. You can't work them to the bone and not feed them, they'll be dead within the week."

"Why?"

"Because they're humans and that's how it works!"

Much to Eva's frustration, the Master looked more amused than anything else. "And if I don't feed them?" he asked. "What would you do? All of the people you care about are on this ship."

"You're right," Eva replied, anger rising in her. "You have everyone I love as your prisoner. I have nothing to use as bargain, I have no belongings of my own, no power over you at all. But do you know what else I don't have?" she asked, a manic smile appearing on her face. "I have nothing left to lose."

The Master's smile slid off his face. "I'm sorry, what?"

"If you won't feed them, I won't eat," she stated. "If you hurt them, I'll find a way to reciprocate. You can hurt all of the people I care about without even having to step out this room, so I'll make sure that if you do, you'll regret it."

"You wouldn't," the Master growled.

"Try me," Eva replied, proud that her fear wasn't showing through the façade of braveness she was putting up.

The Master looked at her, and the look on his face told her that he was reevaluating her as she tried her hardest not to cower back from his piercing eyes. When he smiled brightly, her heart stopped, but she didn't even have enough time to wonder what it meant before he grabbed her hand and pulled her outside.

They walked through the corridors, the Master never slowing down and even though she was practically running, Eva had a hard time keeping up with his pace. She bit down a yelp as he turned a corner and pulled her arm, but tears still rose to her eyes.

"You're hurting me," she whispered, and even though the Master didn't let go of his hold, he slowed down just enough to stop dragging her along as long as she kept running.

They came to a stop in front of a door and Eva froze in fear as she saw it was locked with three different locks and chains. Was he going to throw her there and leave? Did she finally push enough buttons to make him believe she wasn't worth his patience?

She barely registered walking in when the guard outside the door finished unlocking it. She only vaguely noticed walking past a second guard, who stood inside the dimly-lit room that appeared to be a boiler room of some sort.

Her first coherent thought as she stood inside, looking around, was that if the Master wanted to lock her up, he probably should have picked somewhere that wasn't already occupied.

In the middle of the room, held standing up by chains and cuffs, was a man. Every muscle in his body seemed tense, and there was a thick layer of dirt, sweat and blood on his body. Even though Eva knew he logically couldn't have been there for more than a day, she could've sworn he'd been there at least a week.

He looked up as the door opened, and while Eva couldn't see his face she could clearly see a forced smile on his features.

"Back again so soon?" he asked, and Eva's breath hitched. His voice was hoarse and pained, no matter how much he tried to hide it, and he would have probably fallen to the ground if it wasn't for the chains forcing him up, but there was no mistaking who it was. Jack coughed before adding dryly, "You make me feel so special."

"As fun as our meeting yesterday was," the Master said, "I'm not here for you at the moment."

He pulled Eva into a spot of light in the room, and Jack's face paled as the smile slid off his face.

"If you touch a single hair of her head –" he started, but the Master cut him off.

"Overprotective daddy, anyone?" he asked amusedly. "Don't worry, I won't hurt her."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Why would I lie?" Jack stared at the Master for a long moment, but said nothing. "Anyway," the Master went on, ignoring Jack's previous comment, "Evie here said she has nothing left to lose. I'd rather like to prove her wrong."

He marked towards the guard, who pulled a chair from the corner of the room to behind where Eva stood, and her eyes widened in fear.

"No," she whispered, cursing herself for being so stupid. "No, don't hurt him!"

"You're the one who said that I have everyone you love as my prisoner," the Master said. "I'm only reminding you of what that includes. Sit."

"No!"

"Don't fight him, Evie," Jack said, and Eva could hear he was trying to sound stronger than he actually was, for her sake. "Please, this isn't worth him hurting you."

"Don't you see?" Eva asked, turning to look at him with tears in her eyes. "It's not _me_ he'd hurt for this. It's _you_."

"So sit," the Master repeated. "And I just might be kind enough to let you stay with him when we're done."

Eva looked at Jack, who silently pleaded her to do as the Master instructed, before slowly sitting down. Her entire body was shaking, and her eyes didn't leave Jack for a moment as the Master spoke again.

"Good," he said with a smile much like the one he was wearing in Eva's room before he dragged her out. "Now, while we had a lot of fun last night, we didn't really get to using most of the toys I have here and it would be a shame to let them go to waste, don't you think?"

Silent tears fell on Eva's cheeks as Jack's scream started to echo around the room.

 **EMH**

Eva didn't know how long had passed before the Master left the room. She also wasn't sure how long had passed since the Master left the room and until she noticed it. All she was aware of was that at a certain point, she noticed he was no longer there.

Taking one long look at Jack's ragged form, she turned to the guard.

"Bring me a cloth," she ordered, "And some warm water."

"Ma'am, I'm afraid Mr. Saxon gave explicit orders –"

"I don't give a fuck about the Master's orders," Eva bit out, her eyes lit by the kind of madness only the desperate can possess. "You will bring me a cloth and some warm water or I'll kill you right here with my bare hands."

The guard nodded, fear evident in his features as he scurried away. Eva turned to look at Jack, her expression softening as she walked to him, carefully taking off the torn shreds of his shirt.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

Eva wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or cry. " _You're_ sorry?" she asked. "What do you have to be sorry for?"

"The Doctor and I promised we'd watch over you," Jack replied. "If we had, the Master wouldn't have –"

"This would have happened no matter what," Eva said. "This is what you told me about, in the future. Everything that happened up here on the Valliant."

"But not the eighteen months," Jack said. "This shouldn't have happened. You shouldn't have had to pretend to be Eva Saxon. If we wouldn't have left you alone, if I noticed something was wrong when you came to visit me in Cardiff…"

"There was nothing you could have done about Cardiff," Eva said sharply. "All that would have happened if you noticed in Cardiff would have been the Master killing your team."

"How do you know?"

"Because he told me that's what would happen."

Jack was silent for a moment. "Are they safe?" he asked.

"I don't know," Eva admitted. "All I know is that they were in the Himalayas when the Master took over. Anything after that…"

"So they could be anywhere in the world right now," Jack sighed. "We don't even know if they're…" he trailed off, but there was no need for him to finish that sentence.

They both knew that the odds of the Master keeping the members of Torchwood alive were slim to none.

"I think they're alive," Eva said quietly. "I don't know for sure, but… I think the Master would have made sure you knew if they were dead."

"I'm not sure if that's better or worse," Jack admitted.

"Neither do I," Eva sighed. "But since both of us would like to pretend that they're alive…"

They stayed there in silence for hours, more than likely the whole day. The Master didn't interrupt them once, and the guard shifts were done silently and without casting a glance towards the pair.

Someone came in with lunch after a while, and even though Eva was starving, she made sure Jack ate most of it, going as far as only eating when he told her he refused to take another bite unless she ate.

By the time Alex arrived to escort Eva back to her room, the effects of barely eating since before the Master took over started showing on Eva's body and mind.

"I'll make sure she eats dinner properly," the bodyguard promised Jack. "Generally, I'll make sure she eats properly."

Jack nodded silently, smiling encouragingly at Eva when she hesitated before leaving the room.

Walking through the corridors, Eva leaned closer to Alex – both for physical support and to keep back the loneliness she was feeling on the large metal ship.

"Do you have any family?"

She wasn't sure what, exactly, made her ask the question. She wasn't even fully aware of the words leaving her mouth until they rang in the air around them. But, once she started, she felt unable to stop.

"On Earth," she clarified. "Right now. I… I never asked before, about your family. Are they down there?"

Alex tensed slightly, but didn't stop walking or even slowed his pace. "No," he said after a long moment. "My mum and brother died when I was a kid, and I didn't see or heard from my dad since I turned eighteen. Neither of us tried to contact each other in about seven, maybe eight years. There's no one down there for me."

Eva leaned closer to him, her fingers wrapping around his. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Alex shrugged. "Life just happens sometimes, and it's not your fault."

"No," Eva said, shaking her head slightly. "I'm sorry for never asking before."

Alex sighed, coming to a stop and pulling Eva into a tight hug.

"The entire staff got lunch today," he said. "I'm pretty sure they'll get dinner soon, too."

With the tiredness, hunger and relief finally taking over, Eva burst into tears, clutching onto Alex's shirt as she cried.


	12. Or In Times That He Cried

For the next few weeks, Eva found herself, once again, settling into an odd routine. She woke up every morning to the sound of the staff heading out to their works and organized her room. She knew that in about an hour, Tish would arrive with breakfast and was determined to make sure Martha's sister had to do as little work as possible.

When food arrived, Eva forced Alex and Tish to sit down and eat with her. It happened so often that the Master gave up on reprimanding Eva for this and instead settled for delivering their breakfast with hers. The three would sit down and exchange news about what was happening on the ship, all of them talking in hushed voices in case the Master was listening.

From that point on, her schedule could vary.

Often, she would spend the day with Lucy. The Master's wife still seemed to be thrilled about this new situation, and Eva dreaded to find out what would happen before the end of the year that would turn her from this joyful, loveable woman to the shell of a person who shot her own husband.

Other days, the Master took Eva as his shadow. She sat silently by his side, attending meetings or visiting factories on Earth. Those were the days she hated the most, hated seeing what life on Earth under the Master's reign had become, but she knew days like these meant that Alex got a day off, so no word of complaint ever left her mouth.

Exactly once a week, Eva was taken to see Jack. They spent a few hours together, Eva tending to him the same way she did on the day after the Master first took over. She wasn't forced to sit in his room while the Master 'played', as he called it, and Jack wouldn't talk about it, but she could see that the Master didn't stop torturing him. All in all, it was obvious that the Captain wasn't having an easy time on the Valiant.

And, occasionally, Eva was left alone in her room. On days like these, she would lock herself in the library, not even letting Alex in, and tried not to think about what was probably happening to Jack – or, worse, the Doctor – while she was wrapped in books and privileges.

She would only come back out for dinner, the same hour she returned to her room every other day, and would eat silently as always before taking a shower, falling on her bed and passing out from sheer emotional exhaustion.

It was an early day of September when Eva realized it's been two months since the Master took over. She wasn't fully aware of her actions as she dressed, not even bothering to try and arrange the mess that was her hair. Brown curls started showing underneath bleached blonde, and she vaguely wondered if by the end of the year it would be long enough for her to cut the blonde away.

Tish arrived for breakfast at the same time as always, looking around the room.

"You don't have to clean for me, you know," she said, placing the tray down as Alex dragged himself from the couch-turned-bed he claimed as his and poured a cup of coffee.

"Well, you _shouldn't_ have to clean for _me_ ," Eva replied. "Besides, he doesn't have to sleep here, he's got a perfectly fine room just next door."

"As if I'm leaving you alone," Alex muttered. "You're stuck with me, Linny. Deal with it."

"I never complained, _Sasha_ ," Eva replied in annoyance. "That's what I was trying to tell her. We're weird like that."

"Mad, really."

"Selfless, too."

"Don't forget modest," Alex added, digging into his food. "Modest's a very important one."

"Not well-mannered, though," Tish muttered, looking at him with distaste.

"Maybe he isn't," Eva said. "I spent six months as Queen Victoria's ward. I have more manners than the rest of the people on the ship combined, and I know more etiquette rules than I ever wanted to."

"And yet, you use none," Tish sighed, marking at the way Eva forgo her knife in favour of a piece of bread.

"Not in Victorian London now, am I?" Eva questioned, purposely taking an overly large bite of her bread. "Using the loo's _way_ simpler."

"Not sure if I wanted to know that," Tish sighed, reaching out for some food of her own. "'Specially not in the middle of breakfast."

"Sorry," Eva shrugged, not sounding apologetic in the least as she turned to Alex. "So, what's the schedule for today?"

"Er…" Alex checked his phone for the daily message from the Master before his eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Seeing Jack today, apparently."

"What?" Eva asked, snatching his phone. "That makes no sense – I shouldn't see him for another two days."

"I know, but that's what the Master said," Alex said, grabbing his phone back before looking between the two women worriedly. "You don't… you don't think something happened, do you?"

"Well…" Tish started, looking worried. The light mood they were all in just moments ago was gone, replaced by ice cold dread. "I heard… but it's only rumours," she quickly dismissed.

"Rumours of what?" Eva asked, fearing what would be the answer she'll get.

"His team…" Tish said carefully. "They're… they're dead."

Eva turned white, the fork falling from her hand. Jack's team… the Torchwood team… dead? But they couldn't be – they just couldn't!

"How?"

"Not the Toclafane," Tish was quick to reassure her. "The rumours say they were trying to free some high-rank prisoners near London. The guards shot them dead."

"London?" Eva repeated. "But they were in the Himalayas when the Master took over. How did they get to London without being tracked? They're a small team, but not that small…"

"Like I said, it's only rumours," Tish said. "For all I know, they could still be alive."

Eva glanced at Alex, a tightness building up in her chest. The Torchwood team were dead. There was no other reason the Master would allow her to see Jack earlier than usual – there was no way the Master would have let them live. Having survived as long as they had was practically a miracle.

Suddenly, she didn't feel hungry anymore.

With a new thought in mind Eva was up on her feet and out the room before either Tish or Alex even realized what was happening. She all but ran through the corridors, surprising herself with how well she knew the outline of the ship, and it was only a couple of minutes before she barged through the doors to the main flight deck.

She didn't set foot in the room since her first day on the Valliant, and it was proof of her levels of distress that she didn't even notice the Doctor sat on a wheelchair mere feet from her.

"Untie him," she ordered.

The Master raised a brow. "I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, you never beg," Eva sneered. "Untie him, _now_. It's enough that he's been through hell. It's enough that the people who'd practically been his family are dead. You _will_ untie him from his chains. You _will_ let him grieve properly."

"Will I?" the Master asked. "And, do tell, why might I do that?"

"Because I never asked for anything."

The room was silent as Eva took a step closer to the Master, her voice no louder than a whisper.

"I never asked for a big room or a soft bed," she said, "And I know that having those never made me any less of a prisoner. I didn't ask to be excluded from the staff, you decided to do that. I never asked for better conditions for Alex even though god knows he deserves it. I never asked for the Jones' to see each other more often no matter how much I want to. My heart breaks," she told him, "Every day. But I never asked to see the Doctor. Not once."

"And yet, you ask for this?"

"No," Eva replied simply. "I'm telling you. You will untie Jack, you will let me see him and we will be undisturbed until _I_ decide he's well enough for me to leave him again."

"And…" the Master smiled. "What do I get in return?"

For the first time since she walked into the room, Eva's eyes found the Doctor's.

"There's a gun in four parts," she stated, fighting the urge to smile at the glint in the Doctor's eyes. She turned and left the room, heading straight to Jack's cell. "Good luck."

 **EMH**

They didn't say anything that day.

Jack was already out of his chains and sitting on the floor when Eva arrived, his eyes wet and his body shaking. Eva sat down next to him, pulling him into a hug and holding him as he cried.

It took hours before he calmed down enough to breathe normally again, but he ran out of tears a long time earlier, weeping silently.

Lunch had arrived and passed, as did dinner, and Eva and Jack ate without letting a single word out. They fell asleep huddled together on the floor but neither complained about strained muscles when they woke up.

Eva thought absently that this was probably the most comfortable Jack had been in months.

While they waited for breakfast, Eva brought over the bowl and cloth she used to clean him during her regular visits. She hesitated for less than a moment before getting to work, as silent as she had been the day before.

"Owen and Gwen were found dead in the Himalayas, the day after the Decimation."

Jack spoke so quietly that Eva almost didn't hear him. She didn't do anything to indicate that she _did_ hear him, only kept rubbing dirt and sweat off his face silently.

"The Toclafane got to them," he went on, his voice void of emotion. "Killed them on spot. Tosh… Tosh was hurt badly, but she and Ianto got away. She died of infection a few weeks later. He… _he_ made sure I knew when it happened."

Eva didn't ask who. She didn't respond – there wasn't a need to. As she cleaned Jack's face, she couldn't help but look into his eyes and shivered when she saw the raw pain in them.

"The Toclafane didn't go after him. They didn't hurt him. Even when they could have. Even when they _should_ have. They just… left him alone. _He shouldn't have died_ ," he whispered. "He was killed by guards when he was trying to free a group of UNIT soldiers. If he just kept his head down…"

"Then he wouldn't have been Ianto."

Jack swallowed hard, falling into silence once more. He didn't speak again until after the guard picked up the empty trays of their lunch.

"How long did you know?"

There were so many things this question could have referred to but somehow, Eva knew exactly what Jack was talking about.

"Less than two weeks after I arrived here," she said.

"How?"

"I met you. And her… me." Eva shook her head. "She was about three years old at the time. She hugged me. Temporal energy."

Jack nodded slowly. "What happened?" he asked. "Why did she… you…?"

"I don't know," Eva replied. "I only know that it happened around her fourth birthday."

"Do you remember being her?"

Eva looked away from him. "No."

Jack took a shaky breath. "Four years?" he clarified.

"Give or take."

They didn't speak again until midnight.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

There was no anger in his voice, no accusation. There was only plain curiosity, and Eva felt like that was ten times worse than anything else.

"I only met you twice in your past," she said. "The day you first met me, in the middle of the London Blitz, and when I came to Cardiff as Eva Saxon."

"What about the end of the universe?" Jack asked. "The year 100 trillion?"

"I had bigger worries back then."

Jack's arms wrapped around Eva protectively.

She stayed for another week. Neither of them said another word.

 **EMH**

When Eva returned to her room, she was greeted by the last person she wanted to see. She ignored him, heading straight to her bedside drawer and pulling out a cigarette and a lighter.

"You cut down," the Master said as she lit it up. "You've been smoking less."

"Don't have much of a choice, do I?" Eva asked coldly. "Have to save them or I'll run out within the week."

"How many have you got left?"

"Enough to last me another month, at the rate I've been going so far," she replied. "Three, if you stop being a prick."

The Master observed the smoke coming out of Eva's mouth for a moment before speaking, "I didn't kill Jones."

"I know," Eva said. "But that doesn't make things better. If anything, it makes things worse."

"Why?"

"I could ask you the same thing," she retorted. "Why? Why did you keep Ianto alive when the rest died so soon?"

"I…" the Master frowned. "I thought it was obvious."

"Well, it wasn't!"

The Master stared at Eva, looking truly shocked that she didn't figure it out herself.

"I didn't kill Jones because _you_ saved him."

Eva paused, looking at the Master in a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

"Why should that matter?" she questioned. "You kidnap me, you keep me as your prisoner, you take over the bloody _Earth_ , with plans to expand to the rest of the universe, and I'm not even a bit scared that you'll hurt me!"

"Would you rather be scared?"

"I'd rather _understand_ ," she said. "Why do you care so much about me? You help me, you use me, you keep me safe, you stab me with a sword and now this! _Why_? Who am I to you?"

"It's still in your future –"

"I don't care."

She was beyond angry. Beyond tired. She was ages beyond annoyed or desperate.

She was physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted. And, judging by the look on the Master's face, he understood that.

"We're friends," he stated simply. "I'm still not completely sure how it happened, but it did. You just showed up one day and took it for granted. Eventually, it just became easier to come to terms with that."

"But something unexpected happened, didn't it?" Eva asked. "Something you didn't know how to deal with."

"Yes." The Master looked slightly uncomfortable as he spoke. "After a while, I seemed to have grown to… _care_ for you."

If it wasn't for the fact that he seemed to feel the need to wash his mouth with acid after letting the word out, Eva wouldn't have believed it was really the Master speaking.

She put out her cigarette and fell on her bed, not saying anything or looking in the Master's direction. He moved closer to her and sat on the edge of the bed. She wasn't sure what she expected him to say, but later she mused that she should have known by then that he would, once again, surprise her.

"Let's make a deal."

Eva slowly sat up, listening carefully.


	13. In the Bridges He Burned

Three months later, there was no man or woman on the Valliant who didn't notice the changes that took place.

The guards were the first to notice, though that was mainly due to the constant stream of changes in their usual orders, a new instruction coming in nearly every day. They were all small things, loosen the security here, tighten it there, don't engage with this or that prisoner and don't use force on certain people unless it was absolutely necessary.

They all thought it more than slightly odd, but none of them dared to talk about it in more than hushed whispers in the dead of the night, a small comment while passing one another in an empty corridor. None of them were stupid enough to even think of disobeying, either.

The second to notice was Jack, and when they all thought back about it they weren't surprised. In fact, he himself stated that it should have taken him less than the week it did to realize, but then again his count of days depended in part on the Master's daily 'sessions', and when they ceased to happen he lost track of time.

He was also still grieving for Ianto, or so at least he justified himself when he realized just how out of it he had been. After all, his meals were still coming regularly, and he should have noticed something was different.

Truth was, he didn't even realize a week had passed until Eva walked through the doors for her weekly visit of him.

He tried to talk to her about it, but all she did was smile sadly at him and tell him the story of her first real meeting with the Doctor – the first time, from her point of view, that they met face to face.

He didn't know Eva had such a talent for storytelling until he heard her telling the mad tale about Silurians and Dinosaurs, a game hunter and an Egyptian Queen, a psychopathic thief and his robots, two companions and one dad all on a spaceship with the threat of missiles and crashing into Earth hanging above their heads.

"I was so sure it was all a dream," she told him. "I was certain I was going to wake up any moment."

"Did you want to wake up?" Jack asked.

"I think I did," Eva replied. "But I also didn't. Things were… complicated, back then."

"Because they're so simple now," he commented dryly. "Do you wish now, that you've woken up back then? Would you have rather it all to be a dream?"

Eva looked at him for a moment before moving on to the story of the time she met Robin Hood, and how he was the one to teach her to shoot a bow and arrow.

Jack never got an answer to his question.

The next to notice were the Jones' family. It was exactly a month after the changes started, though nobody but Eva and the Master knew that.

Clive, Francine and Tish Jones all expected the worse when they were pulled out of their morning routines and placed into a room together. It took them a few hours to realize nothing bad was going to happen, and that they really got to spend time with each other without consequences – or, at least, none that they knew of.

They were only interrupted once, when Alexander walked in with three trays of lunch.

"She's with him today," he said when he saw the look on Tish's face.

He knew she would never dare to ask the question out loud, but with the both of them spending so much time with Eva and, therefore, with each other, he could read the question off her expression without a single word uttered.

It was after this event that the rest of the staff started noticing things were different. It was small things, nothing that they would have seen if they hadn't been paying close attention – another half an hour of sleep here, a few more minutes to their break there. Their meals were just the slightest bigger, their rooms just a bit warmer.

It was easy to see how they didn't notice before, but that didn't explain the cause to the changes. Not that they complained, mind, but they were all curious nonetheless.

Alexander was the one who noticed the two biggest changes – or, rather, the two people who changed the most during that time. It wasn't surprising, since he spent the most time with them, but he still thought that three whole months were far too long for him to see it.

These changes were different from the rest. While every other change he saw was for the better, these were for the worse. He gave himself false excuses – Eva's rehab from cigarettes was one, Lucy's homesickness was another – but he knew the two women better than anyone else, and he should have seen it.

Nobody else noticed, and Alex honestly didn't expect them to, but Lucy Saxon-Cole and Evangeline Saxon-Miller were slowly but surely becoming shells of their old selves.

 **EMH**

It took Eva a while to understand what made the destruction of Japan influence everyone so much harder than the initial slaughter, 'The Decimation' as it was referred to when people dared mention it. After all, the population of Japan – the casualties of the event – were about seven times smaller.

Some said it was because the Decimation was a display of power while the destruction of Japan was simply meant to make a point. The longer the Master was in control, the crazier he became and as he could no longer use the staff on the Valiant as a target, he started taking it out on the people who remained on the surface of the planet.

Whispers on the Valiant said it was because Japan was the last known location of Martha Jones, and the country turning to ashes left them all uncertain of her fate. Even a month after the event, no valid information was found about her, and nobody could tell if it was because she died, or because she lived and was keeping her profile low as to not repeat the incident.

Personally, Eva believed that the part that affected the people on the Valiant the most, whether they realized it or not, was the fact that the event that shook them all to the core happened to correlate with Lucy's birthday.

In the weeks that preceded the horrifying event, Eva could slowly yet surely see Lucy losing more and more of herself. The joyful blonde was losing her spirits, in part because of the horrors she witnessed on a close to daily basis and in part as response to the Master's lack of attention. In fact, Eva would almost dare to say it seemed as though Lucy was breaking out of a trance – _almost_ , because it was not the sort of thing somebody said out loud when the Master had eyes and ears everywhere.

The morning of Lucy's birthday, Eva didn't bother to wait for Alex to relay her the schedule the Master set up for her. She didn't even bother waiting for Tish to arrive with their food before rushing to the kitchens and grabbing the cake she managed to convince the staff to make, taking it to Lucy and the Master's chambers.

Walking through the door as she did many times before, she found the Master's wife sitting on their bed, still in her nightgown and looking to be on the verge of tears.

It hardly took a genius to realize that Lucy woke up that morning expecting to see a loving husband only to be greeted by a cold bed.

"He… he forgot."

"No," Eva immediately said, knowing there was a fair chance she was lying to her friend. "He didn't forget, I promise."

"Yes, he did," Lucy said quietly. "He wasn't even here when I woke up."

"That doesn't mean anything," Eva insisted, presenting Lucy with the cake. "If he forgot, then why did he make this?"

"He didn't," Lucy said. "You did. I'm not deaf, Eva, I hear the staff talking."

"I…" Eva tried. "Well…"

"Thank you for the gesture," Lucy sighed, "And for the attempt. But he forgot. We both know it."

"He still cares about you, though," Eva said, deciding to try a different tactic. "He forgot my birthday, too, remember?"

"We were having a day out and I found out," Lucy smiled softly. "I got us tickets to see _Sweeny Todd_."

"Do you want me to try and talk to him?" Eva offered with a small smile of her own. "I'm sure I can get him to kidnap some actors to play _Sweeny Todd_ for you."

The smile drifted off Lucy's face. "He's a monster," she whispered in horror.

"No, he isn't," Eva said. "Just crazy. There's a drumbeat in his head, and it's driving him mad."

"He's a psychopath."

"Probably," Eva agreed. That was one thing she could never claim was untrue, especially not after everything she saw during the past two years or so. "But he's also currently the Master of Earth."

"Does…" Lucy started, glancing around before lowering her voice to be nothing more than a whisper. "This 'Doctor' of yours… does he have a plan?"

"He does," Eva nodded. "Just… hang on a little longer, will you? I can't promise things won't get worse, but I need you to hold on."

 _"All staff and personnel are to immediately return to their rooms and await further orders."_

The two women jumped at the sound of a voice calling out through the speakers, their hands reaching out to grab each other.

"Do you think…?" Lucy started worriedly, standing up.

"I don't know," Eva replied, moving closer to the other woman. "Should we…?"

The door opened before Eva could complete the question and Alex walked in, looking more than a bit worried.

"He wants you at the main flight deck," he said. "And… he asked that you dressed for an occasion."

"Do you know what's happened?" Eva asked.

"No," Alex said. "Nobody knows. But… he looks worryingly happy."

Eva swallowed hard but didn't say anything else as Lucy let her into the wardrobe room. The two walked out a couple of minutes later, Eva wearing a soft blue dress whose colour reminded her of the TARDIS while Lucy chose a red dress that sent chills down Eva's spine when she first laid eyes on it.

It may have been years since she watched the episode – or any episode, for that matter – but every small detail was etched into her memory. She recognized that dress instantly. This was the dress Lucy will wear on the last days of the Year.

This was the dress Lucy will wear when she'll shoot the Master.

Eva reached out a hand Lucy took without hesitation, and the two followed Alex out of the room and towards the main flight desk. Eva had only been there a handful of times since the Master took over, as he wanted to keep her as separated from the Doctor as possible and this was where he stayed, but every single time she was there ended badly.

The Master's smile widened as he walked through the door, walking closer to Eva and Lucy. Alex silently moved away from them to stand guard towards the back of the room, and the two women unconsciously moved closer together to make up for the lack of support he provided.

"Lucy," the Master said with a smile, pulling his wife into a rough kiss before turning to Eva. "Evie… I'm so glad you're here for this."

"Didn't have much of a choice, did we?"

Eva wasn't sure what compelled her to state the words aloud, but everyone who heard her say it tensed, trying not to be obvious that they were looking at the Master and studying his behaviour. Eva, on the other hand, looked anywhere but at the man in question.

Her eyes darted around the room, lingering just a moment longer on where the Doctor sat on his wheelchair by the makeshift tent the Master provided him with. He looked worse than the last time she saw him, and though she expected as much it still hurt like a sword to the chest – and she had learned first-hand how that felt, twice.

He still had fight in his eyes, though. He didn't know the truth about the Toclafane, and Eva dreaded the day he'll learn. She knew that this was what would finally broke him, and she never wanted to witness that.

The Master's hand grabbed Eva's face, forcing her to look away, and he shook his head in disappointment.

"Naughty girl," he told her with a smile that was more terrifying than anything else he had done so far. "You know the rules."

"But –"

"No." The smile was gone from his face and replaced with a look that made Eva shiver. "You know the rules."

"Of course," Eva said, forcing herself not to glance back at the Doctor. "I'm sorry."

"You better be," the Master warned before the smile popped up on his face. "Grab a seat, both of you," he said happily. "We're still awaiting several more people to arrive before the show begins."

Neither Eva nor Lucy let the smallest trace of fear to show as they sat down in the same seats they did when the President was killed. As soon as the Master turned away, Lucy leaned closer to her friend.

"Are you okay?" she whispered.

"I'm fine," Eva said shortly.

Lucy observed Eva for a long moment before speaking again. "No, you're not," she stated. "I know I'm not the brightest around, but I'm not a complete idiot, Eva. I know about the deal."

" _Shh!_ " Eva hissed, looking around in panic and breathing in relief when she saw no one heard what Lucy said. "Not here!"

"I don't know when I'll see you again and I need to say this. You need to hear this," she insisted, keeping her voice down and glancing at the Master every few seconds to make sure he wasn't listening. "I know about the deal. I know the price you're paying and it's not worth it."

"I can help them," Eva replied. "I _am_ helping them. If that's not worth it, then what is?"

"At the price of your sanity?" Lucy questioned, and Eva swallowed hard as the Jones' family walked into the room, followed closely by a bound Jack. "Eva, if you keep going like that, you won't last much longer."

Eva let out a shaky breath. "It's not me I'm worried about," she muttered, half to herself, as the Master moved to stand at the front of the room.

"Alright, then," he said, clapping his hands to make sure everyone's attention was on him – as if it ever wasn't. "Now that's everyone's here, we can finally start. Roll the cameras!"

The camera crew started filming, and Eva forced herself to look at the Master as he put on his famous, terrifying smile. That smile never meant any good, as they all learned in the worst ways possible.

"An hour ago," he said, his voice echoing around the silent room, "The child, Martha Jones, had been located."

Murmurs started running around the room before ceasing as quickly as they started. From the corner of her eye, Eva could see Francine, Clive and Tish exchange worried looks.

She didn't tear her eyes away from the Master for a second.

"A deadline was given to the people of Japan," he went on. "A warning, to hand Jones over or there will be severe consequences. As for three minutes ago, this deadline had officially passed. Prepare the missiles," he ordered, and Eva felt sick at the ease in which the soldiers carried the command.

She knew what was going to happen to Japan. She remembered the words Tom Milligan would tell the Doctor's companion in a little over six months, on the day before the paradox was broken. She knew the legend of Martha Jones.

 _"The only person to get out of Japan alive."_

"Aim," the Master went on, not taking his eyes off the camera for a single moment. "Let Japan be the example of what would happen to those who attempts to assist Martha Jones. Fire!"

The massacre was different from the Decimation in many, many levels. There were no Toclafane, no screams for help. A man pressed a button and, for a moment, it seemed like nothing had happened.

Then, the pictures appeared on the screens around them.

Hundreds of missiles were descending in the skies of the Land of the Rising Sun. later, Eva would learn that the exact number was 479, and that about a third of those were nuclear. At the moment, all she could see was fire.

Lucy stood up, fleeing the room, and Eva didn't waste a moment in following her. She knew that there will be consequences for their escape later, but she couldn't care less.

Nothing could be worse than what she had just witnessed.

 **EMH**

"Go away."

"No."

Eva took a shaky breath, leaning against the harsh wooden door. Lucy was currently in the bathroom, refusing to come out and even look at anyone, including Eva. Behind the door were Alex and the Master, the latter all but demanding Eva to open the door and let them in.

"Please, go away," she repeated, hating the way her voice was shaking.

"No," the Master said again. "This is my room –"

"It's her room, too," Eva said. "And she can't even look at you right now. She can't look at anybody. She's locked herself in the bathroom."

"She's being ridiculous," the Master huffed, and Eva's temper flared.

"Ridiculous?" she repeated in disbelief. " _Ridiculous_?! A hundred _million_ people have died!"

"Seven hundred million died at the Decimation, you didn't hear her complaining then!" the Master replied. "In fact, she seemed quite entranced with it all."

"Because you brainwashed her!"

"I didn't _brainwash_ her."

"Hypnotized, then," Eva said. "Messed with her head, changed the way she sees things. Well, guess what? She sees things quite clearly now!"

"And you?"

Eva closed her eyes, trying to keep her voice as even as possible when she spoke.

"I'm just as horrified as I was back then," she told him. "And just as horrified as I would have been if it were one hundred, and not one hundred million. Just as horrified as I am every time you kill someone." Her voice broke as she went on, "You said that you wouldn't kill unless it was absolutely necessary."

"And I haven't."

"One hundred and twenty eight million," Eva whispered. "That's the population of Japan. That's how many people you've burned, just to prove a point."

"It was necessary," the Master said.

"It was madness," Eva retorted. "The drums, they're turning you mad and you can't even see it."

There was a moment of silence from the other side of the door before the Master spoke.

"The drums?" he repeated. "They're… they're real?"

"Yes, they are," Eva whispered. "And they're driving you insane. You said we're friends…"

"We are," the Master quickly said. "We _are_ friends."

"Well, Lucy's your wife and you didn't as much as remember her birthday, so forgive me for not having high hopes!" Hot tears trailed down Eva's face as she spoke and she made sure every word was laced with poison, hoping to make the Master feel bad, for once, and not the other way around. "You say that you care about her and then you ignore her, you say you care about me and then you take away the things that make me happy. Why should I believe you? Give me just one reason."

"Because…" the Master started, uncertain of what to say.

Eva was right, for the most part. He did have a way of letting down those he cared about, though with Lucy it really was more of a scheme to get the public to love him than any real feelings he had for the blonde. She was Eva's friend, though, so he couldn't have said that.

"I will choose you over the world," he finally said. "Any day. Any time."

Eva choked back her tears, forcing herself to keep talking. "You say that," she told him. "But I don't… I just can't believe you. I want to, but I can't."

"I'll prove it to you, one day."

"Go away," Eva whispered. "Please, just… just go away."

"Okay," the Master replied calmly, knowing he wasn't going to get any further than he did so far.

Eva didn't know if he tried hypnotizing Lucy again after the event, but she couldn't help but notice that the blonde was always wearing the same red dress, to remind herself why she needed to keep her mind free.


	14. Or the Way That She Died

The morning of March 4th, Eva woke up feeling numb.

Close to three months had passed since Japan, and things only became tenser as time went by.

Lucy barely spoke nowadays, and when she did it was only in whispers and only when no one but Eva was around. Tish was more and more reserved, and the only times she seemed to be lively was the couple of days following her monthly meeting with her parents. Even Alex seemed to be drawing into himself, and Eva could see it happening no matter how hard he tried to keep it away from her.

She was spending more time with the Master than she had ever before. The Time Lord was trying to prove how much he cared about her, but he was trying too hard and it only caused the opposite effect. He said he cared about her, but he was keeping her away from the rest of the world and from the people she loved.

The morning of March 4th, Eva dragged herself out of bed to find the Master waiting for her with a new purple dress and a cake.

"Happy birthday, Evie," he said with a small smile.

Eva didn't smile back, looking around. "Where's Alex?"

A flicker of annoyance crossed the Master's face. "I gave him the morning off," he said. "We'll be having breakfast together anyway, and you'll have a few hours with your father afterwards."

 _Your father._ Eva honestly wasn't sure if she'd have grown to see Jack as her father the way that she had if it wasn't for the Master's need to constantly remind them of the fact.

"What about the afternoon?" she asked, and the Master shrugged.

"Haven't decided yet," he replied. "Got any ideas?"

 _Just the one,_ Eva thought to herself. _And none that you'll agree to._

Breakfast wasn't done nearly as quickly as Eva wanted it to, but it wasn't long before she walked into Jack's cell. The immortal looked up at her in surprise, taking in her dress and the way she was avoiding his eyes.

"Evie," he said, forcing himself to keep his voice cheerful. "What are you doing here? There's still a couple of days…" he trailed off, an odd look crossing his face. "Did something happen?"

"I… no." She swallowed hard, glancing up as if she was scared to move closer to him. "It's… it's my birthday. Technically," she added, "I mean, my birthday's in December, but this is when my body completes a year cycle, time travel and all, so…"

The smile on Jack's face was honest, but he still had to fight himself not to break out of the chains and pull her into a hug. "Happy birthday," he said instead. "How old are you?"

"Twenty two," she replied, and something clenched inside Jack.

He knew – she told him – that not a very long time had passed between the first time he met her, in the middle of the London Blitz, and their meeting at the end of the universe, when the Master kidnapped her. She spoke of her twentieth birthday approaching, back then.

He forgot sometimes just how long she had been with the Master.

"Tell me a story," he found himself saying.

"I… what?"

"Tell me a story," Jack repeated.

It wasn't uncommon, lately, for Eva to pass the time by telling him stories of her adventures with the Doctor. It calmed her, to think back to a time when things were simple.

"About what?" she asked.

"About anything."

Slowly, Eva stepped forward and moved to sit in front of Jack, a thoughtful look on her face. "Did I ever tell you about the first times we kissed?"

Jack fought the urge to grimace. A grown woman or not, she was still his daughter and there were things he didn't want to think about. He thanked her now for setting up the 'No Flirting' rule so early on, but there were still enough times he wanted to hit his younger self for his words and actions, even without throwing other people into the mix.

But Eva's eyes lit up at the idea in a way he hadn't seen in quite some time.

"You didn't," he replied. "What happened?"

"Well," Eva started, "Our first kiss for me was… weird, to say the least. It was only a few days after I arrived, and he only did it because, in his past, I told him he did. Though both of these are still in his future," she added thoughtfully.

"That's time travel for you," Jack laughed. "What happened?"

"I slapped him," Eva said simply.

"What?"

"I was in the middle of a panic attack, we were in the middle of a fight, my necklace started glowing and he bloody kissed me," Eva surmised. "I jumped to a different Doctor – a younger one – and slapped him."

"That must've gone well," Jack said dryly.

"About as well as you'd expect," Eva laughed. "That was my birthday, too. Exactly three years ago."

She quieted down, slowly shutting herself out and Jack quickly reacted, "What about his first kiss with you?"

"That one was actually thanks to the Master," Eva replied, smiling softly. "It was the first time the Master and I met, and he decided to use me to get to the Doctor. 'To distract him by any means possible,' I believe was the exact description."

"Sounds like a recipe for disaster," Jack commented. "What did you do?"

"Flirted with him until he was no longer functioning," Eva said proudly. "He was so flustered… or so the Brigadier and Jo told me. I didn't remember it, afterwards."

"And you kissed him?"

"God, no," Eva laughed. " _He_ kissed _me_. Snapped me right out of hypnosis."

"Feels like I should be mad at him for kissing you when you were like that."

"To be fair, he was sure I'll snap out and slap him for it, not kiss him back."

"You kissed back?" Jack asked, surprised. "Were the two of you dating, back then? From your perspective," he clarified.

"Oh, no," Eva said. "It was only a few days after _my_ first kiss. Then again, I did have a crush on him, even back then."

"So when did you start dating?" Jack frowned in confusion.

"About a month later for me," Eva replied. "Two regenerations for him. Yeah," she added at the look on his face. "Really took his time with that."

"I'd say," Jack muttered, glancing at Eva's face. There was a look in her eyes that he'd only rarely seen before, a small smile tugging at her lips and a somewhat dazed look in her eyes. "You really care about him, don't you?"

"I do," Eva said. "I… I think I… never mind." She shook her head before looking back up at him. "Did I tell you about the time the TARDIS turned human?"

 **EMH**

"I want to see him."

Eva wasn't sure what made her say it, much less in the middle of lunch that would have otherwise been nice and calm. Alex all but jumped at her words, turning to look at her in disbelief and the Master froze, but she didn't look away.

"No."

"I just –"

"I said no."

"It's my birthday," Eva tried. "Just a few minutes. I just want to talk to him."

"I said _no_ ," the Master snapped. "You know the deal, and you know it's non-negotiable."

Alex looked between the two worryingly, unsure what to make of their words but knowing it was best to stay out of it.

"Just a few minutes," Eva repeated. "I… I won't ask again, I promise."

"You promised you won't ask at all when we made the deal," the Master reminded her.

"It's my birthday," Eva whispered.

"And I don't care," the Master said, his tone harsh and final as he stood up. "You can have a quiet afternoon here. I don't think you've had time off in quite some time."

"I just want to see him," Eva said, standing up and following the Master as he headed out. "Master, please, I just – Koschei!" she called out desperately, making his pause with his hand on the doorknob. "Koschei… please."

A smile slowly made its way up on the Master's face, and for a moment Eva thought he might actually let her have her will. Then, a coldness in his eyes joined the smile, and Eva knew she lost.

"No," he said again, turning to look at Alex. "If she leaves her room before tomorrow, there _will_ be consequences."

"Koschei!" Eva called out as the Master shut the door behind him, slamming her fist against the hard wood. "Koschei!"

Slowly and carefully, Alex pulled Eva away from the door and into a tight hug, allowing her to cry on his chest.

"I just want to see him," she whimpered through the tears, her hands grasping the front of his shirt. "I just… I just miss him so much…"

"I know," Alex sighed. "I know."

The conversation that took place in front of him wasn't one he'll forget any time soon, that much he knew. This was the first time he had heard of the deal, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. At some point in time since the Master took over, Eva and him had reached an agreement of sorts.

And, whatever it was, it was slowly tearing Eva apart.

 **EMH**

Eva could hear the sound of her heart beating in her ears as she walked through the dark corridors. She did something very stupid and very selfish, and she hurt Alex in the process. _Physically_ hurt him, punched him unconscious and snuck out of her room, only pausing for a moment to make sure he was still breathing and not bleeding.

Now, she slowly opened the door to the main flight deck, hurrying inside and rushing to the Doctor's tent.

"Doctor?" she whispered, shaking him. "Doctor!"

"Wha…" he muttered, blinking sleep from his eyes. "Evie?" he asked in disbelief before sitting up in fear. "You shouldn't be here?"

"I had to see you," she said, her hand gently cupping his cheek. "I missed you."

"Eva, you have to go," the Doctor said. "If the Master found out you were here…"

"He'll find out I got out of my room either way," Eva replied. "He'll know I came here."

"He might not," the Doctor insisted. "If you go now, you might be able to deny –"

"No, I won't –"

"Eva, please –"

"I love you."

The words rushed out of her mouth without her consent, but she had no desire to take them back once they were said.

"Doctor, I…" she started trying to gather the courage to say the words again. "I love you."

The Doctor frowned in confusion, opening his mouth to reply, "I lo –"

"No," Eva said quickly. "No, don't say it. You can't say it, not right now and not like this. Not like… not like it's automatic. Doctor, I have never told you that sentence before – for me, this is the first time I'm telling you, and I don't want the first time I hear it coming from you to be… to be automatic. I want it to be more than that."

The Doctor's eyes widened in understanding and he reached out, stroking Eva's cheek softly.

"I love you," she repeated. "It took me a long while to realize it. But when I saw you standing in the middle of the street the day after the election… when I saw you, the real you, for the first time in a year and a half… I just knew it. I knew that I love you, and that I just want to hold you tight and never let go.

"It felt… it felt like I was drowning, and seeing you brought air to my lungs. It was like I was freezing, and you were a sun warming me up. All of those months, I knew I missed you but it took seeing you again to understand just how much I wanted you back. And even now, all of these months here up on the Valliant… you're the only thing I can ever think of, and it drives me mad – it drives me crazy – and I never want it to stop.

"I _love_ you," she said again. "I love you so much, and I miss you so much and I promise that if we ever get out of this hell, I'll tell you this until the day we die." She looked into his eyes, tears burning in hers. "I just want to be with you, always."

"Well, well, well," said a cold voice, and Eva didn't need to turn back to know who was standing behind her. "Isn't that just heart-warming?"

A hand reached out and pulled her backwards roughly, grasping her by the collar of her nightgown and forcing her to her feet as it nearly blocked the oxygen flow to her brain. The Doctor's eyes widened slightly in worry, but it was the only recognition he gave that he was even aware of the situation.

The hand stopped pulling, but it still kept Eva close to the man it belonged to, her nearly bared back pressed against his warm chest. From the corner of her eye, Eva could see a tall figure standing by the door.

There was a short buzzing sound before all of the lights in the room lit up, blinding Eva momentarily. When she could see again she purposely avoided looking at the Doctor, instead recognizing the figure by the door as Alex, who was starting to develop a bruise where she hit him earlier.

"Eva," the Master said, his voice calm yet cold. "Would you like to explain what are you doing here?"

"I…" Eva started, only to trail off lamely.

There was nothing she could say, and everybody in the room knew it. There was no need for her to tell the truth – the Master already knew what she was doing, and admitting it aloud would only make matters worse. And there was no point in lying, since the only thing that could do was make the Master angrier than he was.

"Well?" he asked in that same cold voice, rage burning in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," Eva muttered.

"I don't care," the Master said. "We had a deal, and you broke it."

"I know," Eva said, whimpering slightly as the Master's grasp on her collar tightened. "I… I'm sorry."

"Was I unclear?" the Master asked. "If I was, let me know. I'm sure I could be clearer if I'd tried. I let you make changes, I stop killing your father, I allow the Jones Family to spend time together and I don't hurt your little bodyguard over there _or_ ," he hissed, emphasizing the word, "You get to see _him_."

And suddenly, everything became clearer to the Doctor. The descent in complaint from the staff, the Jones, looking just the slightest bit less miserable, Jack's significantly better state in the couple of times he got to see the immortal. Eva had, quite literally, made a deal with the Devil to keep her friends safe.

And the price was him.

"Not _and_. _Or_. Was I wrong to assume you knew the difference between the two words?" the master questioned coldly. "It means one, but _not_ the other."

"Koschei…" Eva said quietly and the Doctor couldn't hide his surprise – not at the fact that she knew his Academy nickname, but at the fact that he let her call him that.

"Was I unclear?" he asked her.

"No," Eva whispered. "You were clear."

"Then _why_ ," he started, "Do I have to be interrupted in the middle of the night to be told that you attacked Alexander, escaped your rooms and had come here to see him without my permission?"

"I missed him," Eva admitted quietly. "I'm sorry, Koschei… I just missed him so much…"

"Would you like to change the deal?" the Master questioned. "Would you like me to withdraw all of the things I did for your friends, so you could see your boyfriend? It will only take one phone call to separate the Jones Family again, and I can send people back into your father's cell in the press of a button."

"Eva, please," the Doctor croaked out, speaking for the first time since the Master revealed he was in the room. "Please, don't –"

He let out a grunt of pain as the Master sent a well-aimed kick at his stomach, falling to the ground. Eva tried to move towards him, to make sure he was alright, but the Master pulled at her collar once more and she gasped as the shirt choked her.

"Not now, Doctor," the Master tutted. "This is between Evie and me."

"Koschei…" Eva fought the word out, gasping for every breath she took. "Koschei… please…"

He let go and she fell to the ground, swallowing hard as her airway was free once more.

"Just because I'm so nice, you have a chance to change the deal," the Master said. "Choose to keep it as it is and I'll take you to your father's cell where you'll spend the night. I'll even let him off the chains for you. Choose option number two…" He took out a gun and aimed it at Alexander's head, making the other man tense. "I'll shoot Mr. Bodyguard here."

"Koschei, please," Eva all but begged. "Please, don't do this."

"I won't," the Master replied. "All you need to do is say the word. Tell me you choose to keep things as they are, and your friend is safe. Don't… and there will be consequences. You have ten seconds."

Eva closed her eyes, taking in a ragged breath as the Master started counting.

"Nine. Eight."

"Eva, please," the Doctor whispered. "I'm not worth it, please."

"Seven. Six."

"I'll accept any choice you make, Eva," Alex said. "You know I will."

"Five. Four."

"Fine," Eva breathed out, and the Master kneeled next to her.

"I'm sorry?" he asked. "I'm not sure I heard."

"I want to keep things as they are," she said, tears welling in her eyes. "I'll do as you say, and my friends will be safe. And I… I won't come here anymore, unless you tell me to." She glanced at the Doctor, her eyes meeting his and revealing the pain she felt at the Master's conditions. "I won't visit him."

"I sure hope not," the Master replied, whispering in her ear. "Next time, I might not be kind enough to give you a choice."

Eva let out another ragged breath and the Master looked up at Alex, nodding his permission to help the young woman to her feet.

"I've got you," Alex said. "It's okay. I've got you."

"I'm sorry," Eva whispered into his shoulders, tears staining his shirt. "I'm so sorry."

"You have nothing to apologize for," Alex replied.

"Prepare Captain Flash to a visit," the Master ordered into his phone. "Eva will be there in a matter of minutes. Alexander," he said sharply, and it was all the order Alex needed to lead Eva out of the room.

"Just you and me now, Doctor," they could hear the Master saying as they left. "Looks like you're going to be the one to pay the price for Eva's disobedience."

The Doctor's screams kept ringing in Eva's ears even after the door closed behind them, blocking the horrifying sound.

 **EMH**

"He'll never forgive me," Eva whispered hours later, wrapped in Jack's embrace.

"Yes, he will," Jack whispered back. "He cares about you too much to not forgive you."

"I don't deserve it," Eva muttered. "I sold him out, I don't deserve this. I don't… I don't deserve him."

"Of course you do," Jack said. "Eva, you did what you thought was best – and you both know it's what he would have done, if he had the choice. He would always choose his companions over himself, you know that better than anyone."

"He'll never forgive me," she repeated.

"Yes, he will," Jack insisted. "You know he will. You met older versions of him, and they forgave you."

"How? How could he forgive me for something like that?"

"Because he's the Doctor," Jack said simply. "And you're his Evie. He knows why you did this… and he understands."

Eva curled closer to Jack, closing her eyes as she finally admitted what she didn't dare to say until now.

"I don't think I'll be able to forgive myself."


	15. Love & Pain

Ever since the Master caught her in the main flight deck with the Doctor, security over Eva had tightened and she was no longer allowed to go anywhere that wasn't her room if there wasn't at least one guard. Luckily, Alex still counted as a guard so she just went everywhere with him, but it wasn't the same as the freedom she had before.

The Master had tightened his leash, and even those who didn't realize Eva was his prisoner before couldn't miss it now.

By the time the anniversary of the Master's rule over Earth had arrived, Eva was barely communicating with the people around her.

Breakfast became a silent affair, with Eva, Alex and Tish all looking down at their plates. Or, at least, most mornings were like this. On that specific day, Alex glanced from his plate to see Tish was holding three fingers against her glass.

After breakfast, Alex accompanied Eva to her meeting with Jack. Another restriction the Master had put forth was that she could only spend half a day with him, and not a whole day, so Eva used the most of that time.

As soon as she walked into the room she started the task of carefully washing Jack up, completely unaware that behind her back, Alex was signalling to the immortal, resting three of his fingers against his other hand.

Jack's only response was to nod, almost unnoticeably, before starting to prompt Eva for more stories about her time with the Doctor – the chosen one for today being the time she encountered Henry VIII.

 **EMH**

Later that day, Eva was walking to the main flight deck, accompanied by one of the guards. The Master started calling her there more and more often as time went by, and though she was certain it was mostly as a way to torment the Doctor, it hurt her more than the Time Lord realized.

The way he saw it, for the Doctor to know Eva was this close yet to be unable to speak to her or their friends would be punished was one of the best ways to get into his head. For Eva, sitting there knowing that if she as much as looked in the Doctor's direction their friends would be punished was a whole sort of torture in its own right.

Alex was supposed to be waiting there, having been called in while they were having lunch. She hated when the Master did that, mostly because he called her bodyguard in to do nothing more than stand there for show – to make sure everyone knew that though the man was the least loyal to him out of everyone in his staff, he still had him under his command.

Eva knew that the Master wasn't doing these things to hurt her, but it affected her more than he realized. Alex was not only a guard, he was her friend, and she'd much rather walk through the corridors with him than with another, foreign guard who wouldn't as much as look at her.

It wasn't until alarms started blaring that she remembered what was special about today – what was due to happen. She started running, ignoring the guard calling out after her, and walked into the room just in time to see the Master laugh as the Doctor aimed the laser screwdriver at him.

She forgot what happened, forgot that on the day before last of the Master's reign, there was an attempted overthrow, arranged by the Doctor, Tish, Francine, Clive and Jack. If she remembered, she might have been able to warn them not to do it.

If she remembered, she might have been able to warn them it would fail.

None of the people in the room seemed to notice she stood there, all focusing on the Doctor as he tried to get the screwdriver to work. From the corner of her eye, she could see Alex aiming his gun at one of the guards, and inhaled sharply.

 _What the hell was the idiot doing? Why was he taking a part in this? He knew there was only one day left, why did he have to complicate things?_

The Master slowly walked closer to the Doctor, not taking his eyes off the other Time Lord.

"Isomorphic controls," he said, snatching the screwdriver from the Doctor's hand and punching him, making Eva gasp.

It was a testament to how tense things were that no one, including the Master, noticed she was there, frozen in shock, fear and anger – both at herself for forgetting and at her friends for being so stupid to try something like that.

"Which means," the Master went on, "They only work for me. Like this," he said, demonstrating the meaning of his words by sending out a beam that only just missed Francine, making the woman call out and start crying in fear.

"Mum!" Tish called out, rushing to her mother's side.

"Say sorry!" the Master ordered.

"Sorry," Francine cried. "Sorry. Sorry."

"Didn't you learn anything from the blessed Saint Martha?" the Master asked, looking around the room before focusing on Alexander. "Siding with the Doctor is a very dangerous thing to do." A small smile crossed his lips as he looked at the man who was still aiming his gun at one of the guards. "Come on," he said. "You already lost. Why don't you put that gun down before you hurt someone?"

Alex hesitated for a second, glancing at the Doctor who was still crouching on the floor before letting the gun drop from his hand. Slowly, the Master stepped closer to him, moving to aim the laser screwdriver right at his chest.

"I've wanted to do that for a long time," he said. "Ever since you helped Evie save Ianto from Canary Wharf… oh, yes," he added, amusement visible on his face. "I knew where your loyalties lay. So thank you _so much_ for finally giving me a reason to do this."

His finger hovered over the button and the threat was all that it took to shake Eva out of the state she was in.

"No!" she cried out, rushing forwards and placing herself between Alex and the Master.

The latter only barely managed to divert the ray that came out of his screwdriver to avoid hurting her. She flinched at the realization of how close she was to being hit, but didn't move.

"Move," the Master ordered in a tone that expected to be obeyed.

"No," she repeated. "You aren't allowed to hurt him. We have a deal."

"Did you know this would happen?" the Master asked. "Because if you did, the deal is no longer valid."

"I already told you," she said instead of replying to his question. "I don't know what happens after you take over the Earth."

In her defence, the statement was partly true. She didn't know what happened after the Master took over – for a year. But she did know about everything that happens today, both up on the Valliant and down on Earth where Martha was, as well as what would happen tomorrow.

The Master didn't know that, but Alex did, and as Eva could physically feel him tense behind her, she knew the Master saw it.

"You know what?" the Master asked. "I think you're lying. The deal is off. Now _move_."

"No," Eva said, planting herself in place.

"Move!"

"No!"

"I said, _move_!"

"You'll have to shoot me!"

Eva was breathing heavily, but she was the only one. It seemed like nobody else dared to breathe – not the Doctor, not her friends, not the guards. She paid no attention to them, focusing on the Master instead.

"If you want to hurt him, you'll have to shoot me first," she said. "Because I won't let you otherwise. I don't care what I need to do, you're not going to hurt him."

The Master didn't move. He was still aiming his screwdriver towards Alex – and, therefore, Eva – and for a moment she was sure he really was going to shoot. For a moment she was sure he was going to shoot her, knowing she'll revive, to kill Alex once and for all.

Then, he lowered his screwdriver.

"Take them away," he ordered the guards, who immediately grabbed Tish and Francine. "Him, too. Find a cell to throw him into. You," he added, looking straight at Eva, "Sit down."

Eva swallowed hard as Tish, Francine and Alex were taken away, sitting down at her usual chair as the Master pushed the Doctor into the one next to it.

"There you go, Gramps," he said as he placed the other Time Lord on the chair, looking between the two of them. "Oh, do you know, I remember the days when the Doctor, oh, that famous Doctor, was waging a Time War, battling Sea Devils and Axons. He sealed the rift at the Medusa Cascade, single handed. And look at him now. Stealing screwdrivers. How did he ever come to this? Oh yeah," he said with a short laugh, "Me."

"Leave him alone," Eva snapped, making the Master lean closer to her.

"Watch what you say," he warned.

"Why should I?" Eva asked. "The deal's off anyway, isn't it? Why should I care about what you say now?"

"Because you can still control how bad their punishment would be."

"No, I can't," Eva replied. "We both know that I can't, so why bother?"

The Master was thoughtful for a moment before shrugging, "It was worth the try."

"I just need you to listen," the Doctor said, and it didn't take a genius to see he was trying to divert the attention from Eva to himself.

"No," the Master snapped. "It's my turn. Revenge! Best served hot. And this time," he added, "It's a message for Miss Jones."

He turned around before either of them could add anything, barking orders. The guards were quick to comply, cuffing Eva's hands to the chair before setting up the camera to display all three of them.

When it was ready, the Master stepped forwards, starting the camera and smiling. Behind him, Eva started struggling against her bonds.

"My people," the Master said. "Salutations on this, the eve of war. Lovely woman," he added, winking at Eva and frowning slightly at the look on her face. "But I know there's all sorts of whispers down there. Stories of a child, walking the Earth, giving you hope. But I ask you," he said, moving back so that the camera could show Eva and the Doctor, "How much hope has this two got? Say hello, Gandalf, Evie."

Neither of them said anything, Eva still fighting the handcuffs and the Doctor only looking up at the camera for a moment. Their lack of cooperation didn't seem to bother the Master, who went on as if nothing was wrong.

"Except he's not that old," he said, making at the Doctor. "But he's an alien with a much greater lifespan than you stunted little apes. But what if it showed? What if I suspend your capacity to regenerate? All nine hundred years of your life, Doctor. What if we could see them?"

"No!" Eva called out, trying to stop the Master from aiming his screwdriver at the Doctor. "Don't hurt him, please!"

Her pleas fell on deaf ears and the Master completely ignored her, shooting at the Doctor who screamed in pain as he convulsed.

" _No!_ "

Eva wasn't aware of anything that was happening around her. She knew the Master was still talking, knew that there were people watching, but the only thing in her ears was the Doctor's screams. She fought harder against the bonds that kept her in place, not stopping even after a loud _crack_ could be heard from the direction of her wrist.

She didn't hear it, and felt no pain. She wasn't even aware of her injury – she wasn't aware of anything but the Doctor's agony. She didn't stop fighting until the Master stopped, moving to look at the bundle of clothes on the floor.

"Doctor," he said, prompting the Time Lord to get out and glancing around as nothing happened.

 _Please, be okay,_ Eva begged silently. _Please, be alive. Please…_

Finally, something moved inside the bundle and a small, skeletal creature came out. He looked up at the Master with his big eyes, glancing at Eva for a moment before quickly looking away.

The Master didn't react to the creature – _the Doctor_ – in any way other than stepping closer to the camera, sending out one last message before the broadcast ended.

"Received and understood, Miss Jones?"

He turned around, finally noticing the state Eva was in and moving closer to her. It wasn't until he wiped her tears with his sleeve that she even realize she was crying.

"You shouldn't have done that," he said, carefully letting her injured wrist loose from the cuff that held it in place. "You hurt yourself."

"You hurt him," she replied, pulling her hand away from his grasp and hissing at the pain.

"Careful," the Master scolded, an odd expression of his face.

He brought his other hand and placed it on the injured area, and for a moment Eva thought he was going to do one of the stupidest things possible… then, she cried out as a sharp pain crossed her wrist.

"There," the Master said, letting go. "Lucky for you, it was only dislocated and not broken. Should be fine in a few hours, with your healing."

Eva nodded, checking her wrist to find out some of the swelling had already gone down. "What happens now?" she asked.

"You go back to your rooms," the Master replied. "Someone will come fetch you tomorrow. Obviously, Alexander isn't going to be your personal guard anymore."

"And if I refuse?" Eva questioned.

The Master raised his brow. "Refuse to come tomorrow?"

"Refuse to go back to my rooms."

She could almost feel Lucy tensing and turning to look at her in disbelief. The Master seemed to have similar thoughts.

"You'd rather stay here… all night?" he asked.

Eva turned her eyes to the creature hidden in the bundle of clothes before looking back at the Master.

"I'm just as much of a prisoner as any of them, right?" she asked.

"No, you're not," the Master said. "It's different with you."

"You know, somehow I find this hard to believe," Eva said, blinking tears from her eyes. "Cause you say you don't want to hurt me, but then you hurt my friends, and you hurt him, and _it_ hurts me. You say you care, but you don't. Not really."

"Yes, I do –"

"No, you don't," Eva said with an air of finality. "So just… just leave me."

"Fine," the Master bit out, annoyed. "You wat to play like that, fine. You!" he barked at one of the guards. "Get some clothes for the thing! And a cage, something like a bird cage, maybe. You want to play this game?" he added, turning to look back at Eva. "As you wish. But be careful, because I've got a royal flash."

 _You may have a royal flash,_ Eva thought to herself as he walked away. _But that means nothing when you're playing chess._

 **EMH**

Hours later, in the dead of the night the Master walked into the flight deck, waking up Eva and the Doctor by turning all of the lights on. Eva shivered at the manic look on his face as he leaned closer to the Doctor.

"Guess what," he whispered, proceeding to tell the two of them that Martha had been found, and that he was heading down to Earth to capture her.

The Doctor tensed as much as he could in his state, but didn't say anything. He didn't say a word until long after the Master had left – long enough that Eva worried that he might come back.

"You knew."

She swallowed hard, moving in her place on the chair to push it closer to the cage, reaching out her free hand through the Doctor's cage. He reached back, a small, skeletal hand grasping her fingers and she sighed.

"Everything that happened since yesterday morning," she said. "It was… I didn't know about anything that happened during the year. Well," she added, cringing, "I… I knew that Japan would be… and I knew that at some point Lucy would stop loving the Master, but I didn't know…" she trailed off, looking away from him.

They fell into silence that wasn't exactly comfortable or uncomfortable for a long while before the Doctor spoke again.

"Do you know about the plan?" he asked. "Will it… will it end tomorrow?"

Eva nodded. "You heard what I told him about the gun in four parts," she said. "And I know that you won't… you don't like killing. No matter if he might deserve it."

"Do you think he does?" the Doctor asked. "Do you really think he deserves death?"

"After everything he did?" Eva asked. "You don't even know the half of it. He deserves worse than death. But I… I don't want him to die," she added in a small voice. "And I hate myself for it, because I know he'll never stop as long as he lives."

"Eva…" the Doctor sighed. "I'm not going to kill him."

"I know," Eva said. "Just like I know about everything else that's going on. He's a Time Lord, and he's your responsibility."

The Doctor nodded, falling into silence once more. They fell asleep in the most uncomfortable of positions, holding each other's hands.

 **EMH**

A kick that pushed her chair to the other end of the room wasn't on the top of Eva's favourite ways to wake up, to say the least. She jumped up and out of the chair, causing her to fall to the ground with the chair on top of her as she was still handcuffed to it, and let out a grunt of pain.

The loud noise woke the Doctor up, and he stood in his cage holding the bars as if he could somehow wish them gone and get out. It was clear that he wanted nothing more than to rush to her and make sure she was okay, but neither of them dared to move when they saw the look on the Master's face.

"One night," he growled. "I leave you alone for _one night_ , and this is what happens. I really just can't trust you, can I?"

A hundred possible retorts ran through Eva's mind but she held them all back, knowing that stating them aloud would result in punishment – not for her, but for the Doctor. She looked away, biting her tongue and making sure her eyes didn't wander near the two Time Lords.

She could still hear the Doctor sigh and the Master growl as he pulled her back up on the chair, taking a key out from his pocket and releasing her hand from the cuffs.

"Don't even think of doing anything stupid," he warned as he moved her chair back to where it was the day before, stepping back just in time for the doors to open as the guards started piling the prisoners in.

Jack was the first one in, and she could practically see the tension fading from him when he saw her well and unharmed. She let out a small smile towards him, but as it ended up more as a sad grimace she didn't believe it did much to help.

The Jones' family were next. They huddled close to each other, gaining mental support from being together even as they knew why the Master gathered them all. Eva didn't dare looking at them, unsure if she'll find pity for her sorry state at the moment or anger for everything they'd been through. She wasn't overly keen on finding out, either.

More and more people walked in and Eva could not hold back the sigh of relief she let out at the sight of Alex, looking worse for wear but alive nonetheless. She was certain the hours since he was taken to the cell hadn't been easy on him, but he wasn't dead so things could be worse.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the Master stepped forwards, clearing his throat.

"Citizens of Earth," he declared as the doors opened to reveal two armed guards who led Martha into the room, "Rejoice and observe."

Martha made her way towards the Master, her eyes looking through the people in the room. She swallowed hard when she saw her parents and sister, and barely held back a gasp when she saw the state Alex and Jack were in, being the only people in the room who were in cuffs and at gunpoint with guards ready to shoot them at a moment's notice.

She blinked back tears when she saw the Doctor in his cage, and though Eva could barely breathe when the doctor-to-be met her eyes, she almost burst into tears herself when she saw no anger in them before the other woman turned her attention to the Master.

"Your teleport device," the Time Lord said, "In case you thought I'd forgotten."

Martha didn't let a single emotion on her face as she pulled the Vortex Manipulator out of her pocket, throwing it to the Master who easily caught the object, smiling widely.

"And now, kneel." His smile only widened as she obeyed, not taking her eyes off him for a moment. "Down below, the fleet is ready to launch. Two hundred thousand ships set to burn across the universe. Are we ready?" he asked into a communication device.

"The fleet awaits your signal," a voice replied. "Rejoice!"

"Three minutes to align the black hole converters," the Master said, and a clock counting down the seconds appeared on a screen next to him. "Counting down. I never could resist a ticking clock," he said to no one in particular, grinning like an excited child. "My children, are you ready?"

"We will fly and blaze and slice," the Toclafane replied. "We will fly and blaze and slice."

"At zero, to mark this day, the child Martha Jones, will die," the Master declared, before adding, "My first blood."

 _Lie_ , Eva thought, as did everyone else in the room though they all knew better than to say it aloud.

"Any last words?" the Master asked. "No? Such a disappointment, this one. Days of old, Doctor, you had companions who could absorb the Time Vortex or jump through it unprotected," he said, a clear jab at Rose and Eva in his words. "This one's useless. Bow your head."

Again, Martha obeyed, and even Eva couldn't tell if the Master was disappointed or pleased. He made sure to make it look like the latter, though, as he aimed his laser screwdriver at Martha and started talking again.

"And so it falls to me, as Master of all, to establish from this day, a new order of Time Lords. From this day forward…"

He trailed off in confusion as Martha did something that caught every single person in the room by surprise – or, at least, everyone but Eva.

She started laughing.


	16. Sadness & Gain

**A/N:** **So I just got a review about this story and realized just how long I didn't update this story, even though I've had this chapter ready.**

 **A month ago I got a promotion at work, and though it's been going well, I didn't have a lot of time to think about anything else. Add in planning a wedding and you get a very forgetful person (I nearly forgot my fiance's birthday...)**

 **But the chapter is here! And I have more written and will do my best to keep to an updating schedule!**

 **~mlr96**

* * *

"What?" the Master asked, lowering his screwdriver in confusion as Martha continued laughing. "What's so funny?"

"A gun," Martha said.

"What about it?"

"A gun, in four parts?"

"Yes," the Master said, still not understanding, "And I destroyed it."

"A gun, in four parts, scattered across the world?" Martha asked. "I mean, come on, did you really believe that?"

"What do you mean?"

"As if I would ask her to kill," the Doctor said from where he stood in his cage.

"As if I would know, and allow it," Eva added from her seat.

"Oh well, it doesn't matter," the Master went on. "I've got her exactly where I want her."

"But I knew what Professor Docherty would do," Martha said. "The Resistance knew about her son. I told her about the gun, so she'd get me here at the right time."

"Oh, but you're still going to die," the Master said.

"Don't you want to know what I was doing, travelling the world?"

"Tell me," the Master said, clearly more as a means to satisfy his curiosity than as anything else.

"I told a story, that's all," Martha said simply. "No weapons, just words. I did just what the Doctor said. I went across the continents all on my own. And everywhere I went, I found the people, and I told them my story. I told them about the Doctor.

"And I told them to pass it on," Martha went on, "To spread the word so that everyone would know about the Doctor."

"Faith and hope?" the Master snorted. "Is that all?"

"No," Martha said, standing up, "Because I gave them an instruction, just as the Doctor said. I told them that if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time –"

"Nothing will happen," the Master cut her off. "Is that your weapon? _Prayer_?"

"Right across the world, one word, just one thought at one moment…"

"But with fifteen satellites," Eva said, making all eyes turn to her.

"What?" the Master asked, suddenly much more alarmed than he was before.

"The Archangel Network," Jack explained, a smile tugging at his lips.

"A telepathic field binding the whole human race together," Martha said, "With all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same thing at the same time… and that word is Doctor."

Eva closed her eyes as the Doctor's cage started glowing, the man inside slowly going back to being his usual self. Around her, the Master started to protest as all of his prisoners repeated the name of the one he proclaimed his Arch Enemy, but she did nothing but bring her own memories forth.

She remembered being introduced to the show as a child, though she didn't watch most of it until years later when she visited George and Ivy, her cousins, and sat down with George as he watched one of the episodes with the Eleventh Doctor. She thought back to slowly falling in love with the character, and then to meeting the man in person and falling in love all over again, though in a completely different way.

She loved him, all of him and all of his versions, because they were all him.

She thought about Eleven, the look on his face when he realized this was the first time she met him and the way he held her tight after they met Idris – the TARDIS in her human form. From there, her mind wandered to Twelve, the cold glare which hid so many emotions that only she was privileged enough to see.

She thought about Three, watching him work as she slowly came to terms with the way her life were now. She thought about Nine, how he comforted her after Jaffrey's death and how his body felt, pressed against her when she crawled into his bed to shield him from the nightmares.

She thought of the look on Five's face when he thought she had died, only to find out she'd never be able to. She thought of the days she spent with the War Doctor, sitting in the library and pretending they were the only people in the universe.

She thought about Four finding out the entropy was killing her, about Six pulling her closer to him after saving her from the Borad, about Seven being ready to throw it all to hell if it meant saving her from the Rani's poison and about One, ever so curious about who she was yet deciding to let it be when he saw Susan was already counting her a friend.

And she thought about Ten.

Ten, threatening the Vashta Nerada to stay away from her. Ten, all but begging her to come with them instead of distracting the wolf and possibly dying. Ten, a worried look on his face when she woke up from her three-days-long coma. Ten, holding her close to make sure she felt safe when they were in Yana's lab. Ten, standing in the street just minutes after he last saw her – but eighteen months since she last saw him.

Ten as he charged at the Master, trying to put the TARDIS key around his neck. Ten and the look on his face when she told him she loved him.

In her mind's eye, she remembered the scene from the show when the Doctor glowed bright, reverting back to his usual self, and opened her eyes to see the scene coming to life.

"Doctor," she breathed out, so focused on him that she didn't see the betrayed look the Master sent her way.

"I've had a whole year to tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with its matrices," the Doctor said through the glow that engulfed him, as people around them kept chanting his name.

"I order you to stop!" the Master called out desperately.

"The one thing you can't do," the Doctor went on, now looking like himself again. "Stop them thinking." Martha and Jack let out disbelieving laughs and Eva stood up, looking between the Master and the Doctor as the light around the latter raised him in the air. "Tell me the human race is degenerate now, when they can do this."

Martha ran to her family, hugging them as the Master kept protesting and the Doctor kept talking.

"No!" the Master called out, trying to shoot him with the screwdriver only for the energy to fade as it reached the light.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said "I'm so sorry."

"Then I'll kill them!" the Master declared, aiming his gun at where Alex stood only for the Doctor to raise his hand, sending the screwdriver flying from the Master's hand. "You can't do this," the Master said, backing away as the Doctor floated towards him. "You can't do it. It's not fair!"

"And you know what happens now," the Doctor said.

"No!" the Master muttered in panic, backing himself against the wall. "No! No! No!"

"You wouldn't listen, because you know what I'm going to say."

"No."

The Doctor's feet touched the surface and the light died down as he moved closer to the Master, wrapping his arms around the other Time Lord comfortingly.

"I forgive you."

And that was it. The reason Jack knew with such certainty that the Doctor would forgive Eva for everything she'd done, even if she didn't forgive herself. He had a way of always seeing the best in the people he was closest to, just as he had a way of always seeing the worst in himself.

Twelve said in once, though Eva didn't live through it yet and had only seen it through her television screen back when she was still in the universe she grew up in.

 _"Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?"_

Eva shivered, moving closer to the two of them just as the Doctor stood up.

"Captain, Alex," he called out and Eva's father and best friend looked up. "The paradox machine!"

"You men, with me!" Jack ordered a group of guards, two of them handing weapons to him and Alex as they ran out.

Eva turned to look at them, not paying attention to the Master who grabbed her hand, activating the Vortex Manipulator.

"No!" the Doctor called out, managing to grab the manipulator just in time and transporting with them to an empty field across from where the spaceships the Master built were placed.

"Now it ends, Doctor," the Master called out, looking at his creations as the Doctor grabbed Eva and held her close. "Now it ends!"

"We've got control of the Valiant," the Doctor told him. "You can't launch."

"Oh, but I've got this," the Master said, taking a small device out of his pocket. "Black hole converter inside every ship. If I can't have this world, Doctor, then neither can you. We shall stand upon this Earth together, as it burns!"

"Weapon after weapon after weapon," the Doctor said, moving closer to the Master. "All you do is talk and talk and talk. But over all these years and all these disasters, we've always had the greatest secret of them all…"

"We know you," Eva said quietly, turning the Master's attention to her. "Explode those ships, you kill yourself."

"That's the one thing you can never do," the Doctor finished, reaching out his hand. "Give that to me."

The Master hesitated before handing the device to the Doctor, reaching out for Eva's hand just as the ground started shaking, sending all three of them to the ground. The Doctor and the Master fought over control on the Vortex Manipulator before Eva grabbed it, forcing the two Time Lords to hold it as she pressed the 'reverse' button.

They found themselves back on the Valliant, the ship shaking just as violently as the ground below. Eva heard the Doctor yell to get down and did as he said, a pistol flying nearby nearly hitting her face as a result.

When the shaking ceased, the Doctor was first to stand up, rushing to the monitors.

"The paradox is broken," he declared. "We've reverted back, one year and one day. Two minutes past eight in the morning."

He pressed a button and a man's voice came through, sounding confused and distraught.

 _"This is UNIT Central. What's happened up there? We just saw the President assassinated."_

"Just after the President was killed, but just before the spheres arrived," the Doctor went on. "Everything back to normal. Planet Earth restored. None of it happened. The rockets, the terror… it never was."

"What about the spheres?" Martha asked.

"Trapped at the end of the universe."

"But I can remember it," Francine said in disbelief.

"We're at the eye of the storm," the Doctor explained. "The only ones who'll ever know. Oh, hello," he added, seeing Clive for the first time and shaking his hand. "You must be Mister Jones. We haven't actually met."

The Master, seeing the Doctor was distracted, made a try for the door only to be stopped by Jack and Alex, who walked back in.

"Whoa, big fella!" Jack said, grabbing him and stopping him from running. "You don't want to miss the party. Can you…?" he asked, turning to Alex.

"It would be my pleasure," Alex replied, taking out a pair of handcuffs and locking the Master's hand behind his back, just the slightest bit too tight for comfort. "So," he said, "What do we do with this one?"

Eva's eyes fixated on the gun that flew by her earlier, realizing that this was the gun Francine picked up on the show.

"We kill him," Clive said as Eva inched closer to it, knowing that if she was the one to pick it up, and not Francine, she could spare Martha's mother the horror of what she was about to do.

"We execute him," Tish said as Eva stood up, her finger resting above the trigger, thinking that she could shoot him instead of Lucy, that she could spare the other woman all of the pain she'd go through.

"No," the Doctor said immediately. "That's not the solution. Eva, tell…" he trailed off as he saw her, aiming the gun at the Master.

The only thing she could think of was that she wanted to do it herself – she wanted to be the one to finally kill him.

All eyes were on her and she wasn't shocked to see that out of all the people in the room, he was the only one who didn't seem surprised. He looked at her, an unnerving calmness taking on his features.

"Do it," he said. "It's what we've both been waiting for, isn't it? So go on. Pull the trigger."

Eva couldn't breathe. She could feel every eye in the room on her, the tension so thick one could cut it with a knife. The Doctor carefully stepped closer.

"Evie?" he asked quietly. "Evie, put down the gun. This isn't the way and you know it."

"Two and a half years," she whispered. "I was his prisoner for two and a half years. I had to stand by and watch as he killed innocent people and there was nothing I could do."

"I know," the Doctor said. "But not like that. Never like that."

"This is the way," the Master growled, making her flinch. "Don't you want to make me pay? Come on!" he called out. "Do it! _Kill me!_ "

"No."

The gun dropped from her hand to the ground, and the Doctor let out a sigh of relief. Eva knees met the cold floor, her eyes still focused on the Master.

"Two and a half years," she whispered. "You don't get to tell me what to do. You don't own me anymore. I am _free_."

The Master let out a hollow laugh. "Two and a half years," he repeated. "You let me dictate your priorities. You let me change your beliefs. You allowed me to make you question everything you believe in, question _who you are_." A manic smile appeared on his face. "Oh, darling," he sighed. "Do you really think you can ever be free?"

Eva swallowed hard, not knowing what to say. Slowly, the Doctor helped her up and pulled her closer, but she cringed away at his touch.

She didn't deserve his kindness, not after everything she'd done.

"You still haven't answered the question," the Master said. "What happens to me?"

"You're my responsibility from now on," the Doctor replied with a heavy sigh. "The only Time Lord left in existence."

"Yeah, but you can't trust him," Jack told him.

"No," the Doctor agreed. "The only safe place for him is the TARDIS."

"You mean you're just going to… _keep_ me?" the Master asked, clearly disgusted.

"If that's what I have to do," the Doctor nodded. "It's time to change. Maybe I've been wandering for too long. Now I've got someone to care for."

The sound of the gunshot came from nowhere, and Eva found herself letting out a scream as the Master stumbled back. The Doctor ran to his oldest friend and enemy, barely even aware that he was dragging Eva with him, as Jack carefully took the gun out of Lucy's hand.

As the Doctor caught the Master, slowly helping him down, Eva glanced at the wound and shivered. Even without her foreknowledge she knew the shot was deadly. She didn't know if Lucy was aiming at his right heart knowing that he had two, or if she was aiming at his left one and missed, but it didn't matter.

She knew the Time Lord would refuse to regenerate, seeing this as his final victory over the Doctor, and she thought that deep down, the Doctor knew it, too.

Still, as the man who was both her friend and her captor for the past two and a half years closed his eyes, and the Doctor let out an agonized scream, she found herself shedding a tear.

 **EMH**

Later, as planes started arriving to take the people on the Valliant back to Earth, the Doctor led Eva, Jack and the Jones family to the TARDIS. Eva asked Alex to join them, but the bodyguard shook his head sadly.

"I think I need to help sort things out right now," he said. "Give a full report to UNIT about what happened. After all, the people here are the only ones who knows what happened during the Year, and I'm the only one who really knows what happened before that, and how you're connected to all of this."

"Guess I'm about to have UNIT knocking on my door to arrest me any day now, don't I?" Eva asked, a sad smile on her lips.

"Absolutely not," Alex replied. "I'll tell them everything, they'll know you were a prisoner. And, if that won't be enough, we'll have the Brigadier vouching for you. That ought to count to something."

Eva swallowed hard, pulling Alex into a hug and fighting back tears.

"What did I do to deserve a friend like you?" she asked.

"Got kidnapped by a psychopathic alien bent on ruling the universe," Alex replied, hugging her back tightly. "Don't be a stranger, will you? Call from time to time."

"I will," Eva promised. "You can call, too, you know. I'll keep my phone to make sure you have the number."

"Might want to ask the Doctor to tweak it for you a bit," Alex offered. "Can't always count on catching you in the right time era, can I?"

"Not really," Eva laughed. "Though it might also be problematic if you call me and I'm in the past."

"You can always just wait until you catch up to when I am," Alex said, pulling back. "Sure as hell better than catching you in the future – then, it's just gone."

"Yeah," Eva said, giving her friend one last smile. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too," Alex said, kissing her cheek softly. "Christmas at my place?"

"Already have plans," Eva said with a small smile, knowing that the coming Christmas is the one when a replica of the Titanic was going to almost crash into Buckingham Palace. "Might pop up for Easter, though."

"I'll hold you to it," Alex warned, taking a deep breath before turning around and helping people board the planes.

"Evie?" Jack's voice said from behind her. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah," Eva replied, quickly wiping a stray tear from her eye. "The Master's body…?"

"The Doctor took it with him," Jack said, looking less than pleased at the idea. "Said he had to give him a proper Time Lord funeral."

"Cremate the body," Eva explained. "There are people out there who will tear galaxies apart for a single cell of a Time Lord's body, dead or alive. There needs to be a proper pyre."

"Are you…" Jack started carefully. "Are you going to help the Doctor do it?"

"Don't know yet," Eva replied. "There are probably a few things I need to pick up from home – the Saxon Manor," she explained at Jack's confused look. "And then… I'm not sure what I'll do, yet. I don't think I'm ready to face the Doctor with no one else around."

"You're not still scared he won't forgive you, are you?" Jack asked.

"No," she said. "In fact, I know he'll forgive me. That's what makes it so hard. I don't deserve his forgiveness. The things I let happen…"

"You had no choice."

"Did I?" Eva questioned. "Did I really have no other choice but to let innocents die? It's not like he would have hurt me. He proved that, more than once."

"But he'll hurt the people you care about," Jack replied. "That's what he threatened you with, knowing that you care more about them than about yourself."

Eva swallowed hard, looking at the planes as they left the ship, bringing their traumatized passengers back to Earth.

"There are things I need to pick up from home," she repeated. "My necklace and… and a bracelet. My phone, too, and maybe my laptop."

"I'll come with you," Jack promised. "You won't have to do it alone. And you can come with me afterwards… stay in Cardiff for as long as you'd like."

"Thank you," Eva whispered, smiling up at him sadly.

"Don't mention it," Jack said. "I mean, even if you weren't my daughter… you're my friend. One of the best friends I ever had. And you kept an eye over me in the past year, making sure I was as safe as I could be… only right that I return the favour when you need it."

Eva blinked back tears as she reached out to grab his hand, fighting with everything she had against the urge to tell him that it didn't matter how hard she tried to keep him safe because she failed.

The more the events of the past year sank in, the more clearly she realized she didn't deserve any of her friends.

 **EMH**

Eventually, Eva did help the Doctor light up the Master's funeral pyre.

They stood together, neither of them talking as the watched their friend burn. Because, as hard as it may have been for them and despite the fact that nobody but them could understand it, the Master _was_ their friend.

As the last of the flames died out, the Doctor reached out and grasped Eva's hand. He pulled her into a tight hug, either ignoring or not noticing how she tensed at the close proximity. Leaning closer, he whispered something into her ear, and when she asked him what it meant all he did was smile sadly.

"You'll know, one day," he said cryptically, leading her away.

She went with Jack to take her belongings from the Saxon Manor, trying not to look at the UNIT agents who worked around them, slowly taking the house down in the attempt to understand the man who was Harold Saxon better. As the two walked out, Eva saw Kate Stewart supervising over the operation, and was immensely grateful when the woman did nothing but nod at her, understanding that she needed her space.

Eva placed the laptop in her room, and the TARDIS provided her with a bag for the rest of her belongings. There, she put her phone and several more things that could help her get along no matter when she found herself when she jumped. The time for being caught by surprise was over. From now on she will always be prepared for anything that might come her way.

She also took the bracelet the Master gave her their first Christmas together. Now that it was no longer under the Master's control, the bracelet was nothing more than an accessory, and Eva didn't hesitate in putting her on.

She didn't, however, put her necklace on, choosing instead to take on Jack's offer and come with him to Cardiff as she dealt with everything she'd been through. The conversation when she told the Doctor that was tense, to say the least, but he didn't question her decision.

They both needed time to come to terms with what happened on the Valliant.

A week later, the Doctor, Martha, Eva and Jack found themselves standing in the Roald Dahl Plass, looking at the people who passed them by.

"Time was, every single one of these people knew your name," Martha said in disbelief. "Now they've all forgotten you."

"Good," the Doctor said, and Eva couldn't help but let out a small smile.

It was so much like the Doctor, to not want any credit for all of the things he did. Just one more thing that made him so amazing, and made her so unworthy of him.

Jack sighed, slipping through the bars they were leaning on. "Back to work," he said.

"I really don't mind, though," the Doctor started the same conversation that had happened time and time again over the past few days. "Come with me."

"I had plenty of time to think that past year, the Year That Never Was," Jack said. "And I kept thinking about that team of mine. Like you said, Doctor, responsibility."

"Defending the Earth," the Doctor said. "Can't argue with that."

"You coming, Evie?" Jack asked, turning to look at her. She nodded, and the Doctor used the momentarily distraction to pull Jack's arm and aim his sonic screwdriver at the Vortex Manipulator on his wrist. "Hey, I need that!" Jack protested.

"I can't have you walking around with a time travelling teleport," the Doctor replied, zapping the device in question. "You could go anywhere, twice. The second time to apologise."

Eva let out a short laugh and Jack turned to look at her, mock hurt. "What?" she asked, coming to stand next to him. "He's right and you know it."

"You wound me," Jack sighed with a smile, before it faded slightly. "And what about me? Can you fix that? Will I ever be able to die?"

"Nothing I can do," the Doctor said sadly. "You're an impossible thing, Jack."

"Been called that before," Jack laughed, pulling Eva away before stopping and turning to the Doctor with a salute. "Sir. Ma'am," he added, winking at Martha who laughed and saluted back.

"What about me?" Eva questioned. "Don't I get a salute?"

"Cause that's what I need," Jack mocked. "You getting used to me saluting you." He turned around, about to leave, but stopped again and turned back. "But I keep wondering… what about aging? Because I can't die but I keep getting older. The odd little grey hair, you know? What happens if I live for a million years?"

"I really don't know," the Doctor admitted.

"Okay, vanity. Sorry," Jack laughed. "Yeah, can't help it. Used to be a poster boy when I was a kid living on the Boeshane Peninsula. Tiny little place. I was the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency," he told them, and the Doctor and Martha smiled in appreciation. "They were so proud of me… the Face of Boe, they called me." The smiles slowly slid off the other time travellers' faces, but Jack didn't seem to notice. "I'll see you."

He turned around and left but Eva stayed behind a little longer, wanting to see their response first-hand.

"No," the Doctor said almost immediately.

"It can't be," Martha said, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself.

"Yes, it is," Eva smiled. "Don't worry, though. I won't tell him."

And with that she turned around, running a little to catch up to Jack's faster pace.

"So?" he asked. "Ready to live normally again?"

"No," Eva said, the smile sliding off her face as she swallowed hard. "But, well… I think I need a little normal at the moment."


	17. Home

Jack left Eva at her flat, telling her he would come back to check on her after he found his team and explained everything to them. It had been nearly six months since he had flown away, and they deserved an explanation to his absence.

"I don't know how much I would tell them," he said. "Probably won't go to details about the whole Year and everything that happened, but I want to make sure they know I didn't plan on leaving for so long without telling them."

Eva nodded, giving him a small smile of encouragement, and he walked out into the night. Looking around her flat and seeing some of her clothes still laying around from the last time she was there, Eva suddenly realized this was the first time she was truly alone in over eighteen months.

She never knew silence to be this loud before.

She managed to survive barely thirty minutes, cleaning up the place and putting it back together with the hopes that an organized environment would help her organize her mind, before she finally drove herself off the edge.

Cleaning her bedroom had been too easy, and cleaning the living room and kitchen made her wonder how often she usually arrived to the flat if it had been that well-stocked, but it was the bathroom that made her snap. She started going through all of the drawers in the apartment, undoing all of the work she did so far, until she finally found what she had been looking for and stood in front of the mirror, studying her reflection.

Even with her curls making it hard to see how much her hair had grown she could easily estimate ten centimetres of brown hair peeking out of the bleached blonde. She grabbed a handful of it and brought the other hand closer, moving the object in her hand with two swift motions.

The scissors opened and closed, and strands of hair fell to the floor.

It seemed that once she started, she had been unable to stop. The scissors snapped again and again, and as the last bit of blonde hair was cut off, Eva felt like a physical weight was lifted from her heart.

She smiled manically, turning her head to look at her reflection before bursting into tears as she saw the chipped ends of hair peaking at different, odd angles.

 _God, she was a mess._

Wiping her tears away, she ran to her bedroom and opened the closet. Why the hell did she have so many dresses? She had always preferred the simple jeans-and-t-shirt combination, but after being forced to wear as many dresses as the Master pleased, she _hated_ everything that didn't have proper place for her legs to get into, one at a time.

Half of the closet was on the floor by the time she managed to pick a simple enough pair of jeans her current size and a shirt she was satisfied with. Not even fully aware of what she was doing, she grabbed her bag and all but ran out the door.

She needed a drink.

 **EMH**

 _When was the last time she went to a bar?_ Eva wondered as she walked through the doors to a crowded little place not far from her flat. _Definitely before her time as Eva Saxon. More than likely before she even started travelling with the Doctor. Must have been…three, maybe three and a half years. Valerie would be horrified._

She sat down by the bar, paying little to no attention to the people laughing and dancing around her. Her eyes travelled to the television at the corner, and she swallowed hard as she saw Lucy being led in cuffs into a holding facility. The headline said that the investigation regarding the woman killing her husband was still ongoing, and that no information had been released to the public as of yet.

"Anything I can get you?" the bartender asked.

"Tequila, clean," she said. "Keep 'em coming."

If the bartender thought something about her less-than-local accent, he didn't say anything aloud. He pulled out a glass and poured some of the caramel coloured liquid, his eyes following hers to look at the screen.

"Poor lass, eh?" he asked with a sigh. "Didn't know what she was getting into."

"You really believe that?" a man who sat a couple of chairs away from Eva asked. "I mean, she's been with the guy for a while before she married the bloke. Must've known something back then, didn't she?"

"My niece's ex-husband used to beat her," the bartender said. "Looked like the perfect little family until you saw them behind closed doors. Don't judge before you know. 'Sides," he added, "They say now that his daughter wasn't really his – just some poor girl he kidnapped."

"If she wasn't his then why did she act like she was?"

"Threatened her family," Eva found herself saying, making the two men look at her. "Well, it only makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, first thing he did when Martha Jones got involved was to arrest her family. Is it really hard to believe he did the same thing to her?"

"Still shouldn't have helped a psychopath become Prime Minister," the man said.

"You're the ones who voted for him."

The man's face twisted and his mouth opened, but whatever he was about to say was cut off by the music cutting off mid-beat. All heads in the room turned to look at the man they assumed responsible, who was now moving from the entrance and closer to where Eva was sitting.

Eva sighed, rolling her eyes. This was _just_ her luck, wasn't it?

"All right," the man said, looking around. "Now. You go. You go. You go. You… stay," he said with a flirtatious smile, looking at one of the girls before moving on. "Go. Go. Go. Oh. Stay. Go. Go. Go. Go. Go. Oh," he sighed as he looked at two more women. "Stay, stay, stay… go," he moved on. "Go. Go. Definitely stay," he added with a wink at Eva's direction. "Go. Go. The rest of you, go," he called out, turning to the bartender. "I'll take one of everything. Any questions?"

A man in security uniform walked in, looking at the man. "All right, mate," he said, "Let's take it outside."

The man didn't hesitate before pulling out two large guns, aiming them in the air.

"Oh," he said. "Did I mention I'm armed?"

Moments later, the bar was empty apart from Eva and the man, who placed the guns back in their holsters at his hips.

"Aren't you gonna run away?" he asked, raising a brow.

"Told me to stay, didn't you?" Eva asked, reaching forwards and bringing the bottle of tequila closer to her. Half empty… well, she could always get another one, if she wanted to.

"A man shows off his two big guns, and you don't even blink," the man noted.

Eva slowly looked from one holster to the other, making sure her eyes lingered for a moment on the area between them before looking back up at him.

"I've seen bigger."

The man laughed, reaching out a hand for a shake. "Captain John Hart," he said. "And you are…?"

"Not interested," Eva said shortly. "Now, if you could pop off and let me drown my sorrow, I'll be more than grateful."

"Oh, touchy, aren't we?" John questioned. "Alright… got better things to do now anyway. Maybe later?"

"You're really not used to hearing a 'no', are you?" Eva asked, raising her brow.

"Not really," John shrugged. "Usually the only 'no' I hear is a part of 'No, don't stop'."

"And that's one metal image I really didn't need."

John smirked but said nothing, moving aside to send a message Eva knew was aimed for Jack. Once done, he moved to sit by her side, looking at her bottle for a moment before reaching out and grabbing a different one, taking a swig out of it as Eva did the same with hers.

"So," he started, "What is a girl like you doing in a place like that?"

"I don't know," Eva sighed. "What's a Time Agent like you doing here? Sorry," she added, at the shocked look on his face. "Ex-Time Agent, aren't you? Did they throw you to the curbs before they fell apart or did you just run off with what you could when they disbanded?"

"You don't belong here," John growled.

"I belong here more than you do," Eva retorted, her eyes glancing at the door as he heard sounds outside. "Oh, look. Seems like we have company."

"Well, then," John said, standing up. "I'll just have to deal with you later."

Just as the words left his mouth, the bar's doors opened to reveal Jack. The immortal didn't seem to notice Eva was present, instead focusing on his old friend. John stepped forwards, his fingers itching nervously as Jack did the same. At long last, the two stood face to face with each other, and started kissing.

Eva was certain that if she didn't already know what was going to happen, her eyebrows would have shot up with surprise. As it was, all she did was take a few more chugs of her bottle, holding it closer so that it won't break in the mess that was created when the two men stopped kissing, and started fighting.

Eventually, the two men reached a stalemate, each of them aiming his gun at the other's head.

"You're putting on weight," John commented breathlessly.

"You're losing your hair," Jack replied in a similar manner.

"What are you wearing?" John asked, marking at Jack's coat.

"Captain Jack Harkness, note the stripes."

"Captain John Hart, note the sarcasm."

"Hey, I worked my way up through the ranks," Jack said, offended.

"I bet the ranks were very grateful," John replied and Eva let out a short laugh, making Jack finally aware of her presence.

"Evie?" he asked, confused.

"So that's your name," John smiled. " _Evie_."

"That's Eva for you," Jack said. "Or, better yet, just don't talk to her at all."

"Oh, leave the poor girl alone," John said. "If she wants to have some fun, let her."

"Wouldn't want to have fun with you," Eva said, laughing to herself as she brought the bottle up to her lips again.

Jack lowered his gun, ignoring John as he made his way to the bar and snatched the bottle out of Eva's hands. "What the hell happened to your hair?" he asked, stopping to look at the bottle in his hand and seeing it to be three quarters empty. "How much of this did you drink?"

"Not 'nough," Eva muttered, taking the bottle back from Jack. "And you're not one to judge, by the way. Four hyper-vodkas as your last meal?"

"Woah," John smirked. "When did _that_ happen?"

"None of your business," Jack snapped. "Eva, what are you doing here?"

"Getting scarred for life, apparently," Eva said. "Honestly, get a room."

"Evie…"

"Just go back to what you were in the middle of, Jack," Eva sighed, taking another long swing of her bottle. "I'll be fine."

Jack looked at her for a moment before glancing back at John, who shrugged.

"Want a drink?" the other man asked.

"I thought you'd never ask," Jack said, placing himself between Eva and John as the latter grabbed two bottles of vodka, handing him one before gulping down the other. "So, how was rehab?" he asked, raising his brow.

" _Rehabs_ ," John corrected. "Plural."

"Drink," Jack said, counting on his fingers, "Drugs, sex and…?"

"Murder," John shrugged, making Jack laugh in disbelief.

"You went to _murder_ rehab?"

"I know," John sighed. "Ridiculous. The odd kill, who does it hurt?"

"You clean now?"

"Yeah, kicked everything," John said, taking another gulp of the bottle. "Living like a priest."

"Really?" Eva snorted. "And you make my drinking habit look bad."

"Don't start," Jack warned, turning to look at her. "We _will_ talk about this later."

"Yes, _dad_."

If Eva or John noticed the pained look that crossed Jack's face for a moment, neither of them said anything.

"So," Jack said, regaining his composure, "How's the Time Agency?"

"You didn't hear," John said, turning serious. "Really, even _she_ heard. It's shut down."

"You're kidding me," Jack said, also sobering.

"No," John replied. "There's only seven of us left now."

"Wow," Jack let out a low whistle.

"It's good to see you," John smiled. "It was never the same without you."

Jack smiled back for a moment before it drifted off his face. "You need to go. I don't want you on my territory."

"What?" John asked, confused. "Time was you couldn't get enough of me on your territory."

"You really are desperate to scar me for life tonight, aren't you?" Eva muttered, holding her bottle closer.

"Hold that thought," John said, pulling out his gun and shooting both doors to the bar. "All right, everybody out."

As the Torchwood team came through the doors, guns at the ready, Eva vaguely wondered if Jack would let her take the bottle with her.

 **EMH**

He didn't. In fact, Jack seemed quite persistent to keep Eva confined to the Hub, possibly permanently.

"You can't just lock me in here!"

"It's for your own safety!"

"Like I give a bloody damn about my safety, Jack! You lot need me! Another set of eyes –"

"Yeah, because you've been seeing so straight with how much you've been drinking."

"I still have my knowledge!"

"It doesn't matter," Jack said with an air of finality. "You're staying here, and that's it."

Eva watched as he turned around, ready to go away. She wasn't sure what brought the words to her lips, or what made them come out as a pained whimper, but she didn't pay it any attention at the moment.

"You sound just like _him_."

Jack paused, turning around and looking at her. "That's different," he said. "That – that's not the same thing."

"Isn't it?" Eva asked bitterly. "Telling me what I can or can't do, locking me up, giving me orders. How is that not the same?"

"Because I won't hurt you," Jack replied. "I will never hurt you, Eva."

"He never hurt me, either," Eva said in a small voice. "He never hurt me, even when I disobeyed… he hurt you, instead."

Jack sighed, pulling her into a hug. "Just… for as long as John's in town, okay?" he asked. "I don't trust him, and even less with you around. Just… please, stay here while he's around."

"You'll just find another excuse tomorrow," Eva muttered into his shirt.

"No, I won't," Jack promised. "Tomorrow, we could go through all of the bars in Cardiff, if that's what you want. You could go shopping."

"I hate shopping."

"But you could go, if you want to," Jack said. "Just you, nobody else. No threats or warnings or bodyguards. Just you, okay?"

"Okay," Eva sighed, pulling out of the hug. "Stay safe."

"Course I will," Jack said with a wink. "Don't worry, we'll be back before you know it."

With one last kiss to her cheek Jack walked out of the room, leaving Eva alone. She sighed, falling into one of the chairs and trying to think of ways to pass the time until the group will return. She didn't think she imagined John's gaze lingering on her for a moment before he, too, walked out of the Hub.

 **EMH**

When John walked into the Torchwood autopsy room and started working on the canisters, the last thing he expected was to be interrupted.

Of course, he expected Jack's little 'crew' to arrive at one point or another, but none of them were a real match for him without the former Time Agent by their side. Besides, all he needed to do was put the canisters together and take the diamond, then he'll be off.

He didn't expect two thin, surprisingly tanned arms to wrap around him. Turning around, he was greeted by a more-than-pleasant surprise. It seemed like little _Evie_ had found another bottle of liquor, and was now all but throwing herself at him.

"Well, well," he said, smirking as he looked at the bottle of Scotch – and a quite expensive one, by the looks of it – in her hand. "Now, where did you get this?"

"Jack's drawer," Eva whispered, as though she was telling him a secret. "Don't tell him… he'll get – _hic_ – mad."

"Oh, don't worry," John muttered, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer, smiling as she giggled. "I have no plans on _ever_ telling him about this."

Of course, that was partly due to the fact that he had just thrown Jack off a building, but she didn't need to know that, did she?

"What should we do with you?" he asked, moving a short curl out of her eyes. "Oh, I'm just _bursting_ with ideas."

He leaned in to kiss her, only to be stopped by the sound of guns – at least three, possibly four – cocking nearby.

"I sure hope the first of those is to leave her alone," the boy, _Ianto_ , said.

John looked up at the four remaining members of the Torchwood team, moving a little to place Eva right between their guns and himself. He may have not known them for long, but he saw enough to know they wouldn't shoot him if it meant risking her.

"Okay," he said. "Pretty and resilient. Is that even fair?"

"Maybe you didn't realize," Gwen said. "You can beat, shoot, threaten, and even poison us, and we keep coming back stronger every time."

"Well," John said, pulling Eva closer, "I think you ought to know your boss is splayed out on the…" he trailed off as Jack walked into the room, looking far more alive than he did the last time John saw him. "Pavement. Now that's impressive," he said, letting out a whistle to hide just how nervous he truly was. "Seriously, you can earn a fortune in the Vegas galaxies with an act like that. Go on, how's it work?"

"I can't die," Jack said simply.

"Huh," John laughed nervously. "No but, really…"

"No, but really," Jack said, "You can't kill me. No matter how many times you try, I can't die. Ever." He looked at Eva, who was leaning even closer to John than before, and an expression John had never seen before crossed his face. "Let go of her."

"You know what, I don't think I will," John said. "Might actually keep her. Between her sass and her arse…"

"Let her go."

"Or what?" John asked, bringing Eva's head up to cover his before whispering to her, "Do you think they'll shoot me, when you're like this?" Eva slowly shook her head, and John smiled. "You think Jack's angry when we're like this?"

"Very much," Eva whispered back. "Very, very angry…"

"Oh, she's been such a naughty girl," John smirked, looking up at Jack. "Deserves a good spanking, don't you think?"

"Let her go!"

"Or what?" he asked. "It's not like she's complaining."

"She's drunk, you idiot," Ianto bit out.

"Overprotective much, anybody?" John mused. "You know, I heard the rumours running around. That you've got a daughter you've been hiding somewhere. Didn't expect it to be twenty first century Earth. Oh, you didn't know?" he asked, smirking at the surprised looks Jack's team exchanged. "Didn't _daddy dearest_ tell you?"

Something about what he said must have hit closer to home than he realized, since suddenly Jack was aiming a gun at him.

"Will you do it?" John asked. "Shoot me and risk hitting her, instead? What will you do if I take her?" he questioned, running his hands around Eva's waist. "If we disappear into one of the rooms you lot have here? In fact," he said, "What would you do if I do _this_?"

And with that, he placed his lips right above Eva's, kissing her deeply.

For a moment, everyone in the room were frozen in shock, before Eva pulled away. Jack's eyes widened as John kept kissing the air, unaware that his partner for the kiss was no longer there, and Eva turned to look at the group.

She didn't seem drunk any more. In fact, Jack was now wondering if she had been drunk to begin with.

"Hallucinogenic lipstick," she said, sounding tired. "Should hold him back for about thirty minutes. She tricked him, by the way," she added. "There's no diamond. The tubes will turn into a real bomb, and it will latch to him since he's the one who killed her. Thought I'd spare you the stress of diffusing it."

"Evie…"

"Don't, Jack," Eva said, shaking her head. "I won't be stupid enough to say I'm fine, but I'm not as broken as you seem to think I am. I think I'll go to bed now. Ianto?" she added. "Could you help me with my hair tomorrow? I tried doing it myself, but I don't think it turned out very well."

"No," Ianto agreed, before realizing what she asked. "I mean, yes. I'll help you… tomorrow."

"Thank you," Eva said with a small, sad smile. "Good night."

The five people in the room were left staring at her as she walked away before Owen turned to Jack, asking the question that ran in all of their heads.

"What the bloody hell happened to her?"

Jack sighed, rubbing his face.

"Did you hear the rumours that say Saxon's daughter wasn't really his?" he asked. "That he kidnapped her and threatened her to keep her cooperating?"

"Vaguely," Gwen said. "You don't say that…?"

"It's Eva," Jack confirmed. "He held her hostage, and he threatened to hurt me, if she stepped out of line. I didn't even know I was her biological father until… well, until I went away. Troubles of time travel."

"Is she…" Tosh started carefully. "Is she safe now?"

"Saxon's dead," Jack said. "That much is true. He can't hurt her anymore. Whether or not she's okay…"

"Is an entirely different thing," Ianto sighed in understanding. "We'll help, Jack. You don't have to do this alone, we're here for you. Both of you."

"Thank you," Jack sighed, his eyes trailing back to the man who was his friend – and much more – for a very long time. "For now, let's finish dealing with this problem."


	18. A Thousand Years

The next morning, Eva woke up to the sounds of someone walking around her flat. She slowly pulled herself out of bed, slowly itching towards the kitchen only to find Ianto standing there, looking impeccably dressed despite the fact that it wasn't even seven in the morning.

"Good morning," he said in a voice Eva believed to be far too chipper considering the early hour. "I made you some coffee, if you want."

"What are you doing this?" Eva asked. "It's way too early for human interaction. How do you even have a key to my flat?"

"I don't," Ianto said simply, making Eva raise her brow. "My morals are questionable, yes, I know. You have nightmares," he added.

"I was held hostage by a murderous psychopath who is also apparently my friend for two and a half years," Eva said dryly. "Of course I have nightmares."

Ianto opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to say something before apparently changing his mind. "John left last night," he said instead. "Jack looks like he could use a talk, but I don't think it'll end well if any of the team did it. Meanwhile, I seem to have been completely crazy last night since I agreed to cut your hair even though I don't know how to."

"What's to know?" Eva asked, reaching out to grab one of the cups Ianto placed on the table. "There's hair, and then there isn't any. I just need someone to help me because I can't see the back of my own head and I don't want to accidentally leave a bunch."

"You…" Ianto blinked in surprise. "You want to cut it off? All of it?"

"Wasn't that obvious?" Eva asked, taking a sip of the coffee before seemingly snapping back to reality. "Okay, I think I finally understand what they're talking about. This coffee is heavenly."

"Why would you want to cut your hair off entirely?" Ianto question. "Let's just go to one of the hair saloons around here –"

"No," Eva immediately cut him off. "Every three weeks, I went to the hair salon. Every three weeks, a hairdresser bleached my hair. I don't want to walk into a hair salon ever again, and I want what's left of my hair _off_."

"Okay," Ianto sighed. "I can help you with that. But only if you go to Jack as soon as we're done and talk to him about everything that had happened with John."

"Deal," Eva said, before remembering how last night should have ended if she hadn't interfered. "He told him about Grey, didn't he?"

"Yes," Ianto said. "Not gonna ask who Grey is, since Jack clearly doesn't want us to know, but I figured you probably already know so you could talk to him about it."

"Fair enough," Eva sighed, thinking that this was one conversation she was really _not_ looking forwards to. "Come on, then. Let's chop this hair off."

 **EMH**

Three weeks had passed before Eva gathered the courage to put her necklace on again.

She cut her hair off completely, and combined with her constant need to wear anything other than a dress – the Master loved it when she wore dresses – it caused to more than one occasion of people on the street mistaking her for a guy when they saw her from behind.

She didn't care much. If anything, it meant that it was even less likely for someone to recognize her as Eva Saxon than it was before, so she tuned Jack's occasional comments about it off, telling him to just deal with it because that was how things were now.

When she did wear the necklace again, it wasn't because she felt ready. In fact, she felt like she wasn't ready to face the Doctor again in the least, but as time went by she realized that the longer she stayed, the more likely she was to get involved in the Torchwood adventures and she wasn't overly fond of this idea, either.

So she sucked it up and told Jack she's ready to wear the necklace again. The day she was due to leave, the entire Torchwood team gathered in the Hub to see her go.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Jack asked for what felt like the hundredth time.

"No," Eva replied, just as she had every other time he asked. "But I think I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Delaying it any more won't help."

"Okay," Jack said, taking a deep breath. "Okay, bets up."

Tosh was the first to step up, pulling out five quid and placing it in the jar. "Past," she said. "It's simple statistics, really. The Doctor has a total of thirteen regenerations and he is currently in his tenth. Odds are she'll end up in his past."

Yeah, she didn't completely believe they were taking bets on whether she'll end up with a past or future Doctor, either.

"But," Jack said, adding in his part, "Time Lords can live thousands of years, and the Doctor hadn't even reached the one-thousand mark yet. Future."

"Also future," Ianto said. "Mainly because she needs to talk to him about everything that happened.

"Past," Owen cut in. "So she could _ignore_ everything that happened."

"Great way to live," Ianto said dryly.

"So far, so good for me."

"Well?" Eva stopped the conversation before it could go any further. "Gwen, you're the only one left."

"I think I'll say… future," Gwen decided, placing her money in the bet jar and smiling softly at Eva. "Good luck."

"I'm gonna need it," Eva sighed, lifting her necklace from where it was on the table and readjusting the stripes of her backpack. "I'll text you as soon as I can," she promised Jack. "And, about what we talked about before… things will be fine, eventually."

"Last time you said that I got stuck in the year 200,100," Jack commented and Eva cringed.

"Yeah…" she muttered. "Haven't been there yet, but good to know."

She felt sad that she couldn't offer Jack any more comfort over John's revelation that he had found Grey, but there was a long way ahead of the Captain before things will be solved between him and his brother.

"Well," she muttered to herself. "Here goes nothing."

With one practiced motion she placed the locket over her head and around her neck. The group watched in awe as it immediately started to glow, and Eva took a deep breath as she was thrown into the Vortex once more.

The travel seemed longer than usual, though that could also be because she hadn't travelled in a long time. When she finally landed, she looked around to find herself in the TARDIS, but there were no signs to help her determine which Doctor was currently driving it.

There was no scarf, hat or coat, and instead a thick layer of dust covered the white floor and Eva frowned when she realized the lights were shut.

"Since when are the lights shut in the TARDIS?" she muttered to herself, lightly touching the console to see it coming to life – though it did so slowly, as if it had been a long time since someone travelled in it.

Her eyes widened as she pulled out her phone, quickly sending a text to Jack.

 _'Just landed, Tosh and Owen won the bet,'_ she sent out, waiting less than a minute before Jack replied.

 _'Past, then? Have fun ignoring your troubles. How far back?'_

Eva swallowed hard, looking around at the empty TARDIS and realizing it was more than just empty – it was deserted.

 _'The furthest.'_

 **EMH**

Eva was in the TARDIS for three days before anything of interest happened.

The first day, she found her way to the library. It seemed unnaturally dark, and Eva's heart clenched when she opened the lights to find it half-empty. It had never occurred to her that many of the books the TARDIS held were ones that the Doctor and his companions collected in their adventures.

From there, she went on to her, room, frowning at the sight of the wall behind her bed completely empty. She reached into her bag, taking out the pictures she took of Jack and his team and putting them up on the wall. It still seemed empty, but not as much as it did before.

A few short trips to the library meant that while the shelves there were a bit emptier, the ones in Eva's room were at least partly filled with the books she knew should be there.

She fell asleep on her bed, the room feeling much lonelier than usual.

The next day was dedicated to cleaning up the Console Room. Eva didn't know how long it had been since someone last set foot inside the TARDIS, but the place was full of dirt and it took her hours before she felt it was clean enough. Once she was done, she patted the console softly, promising the TARDIS that she would never let it get this bad again.

By the third day, Eva had completely lost it out of boredom.

"Do you think he'll be here soon?" she asked, sitting on a couch the TARDIS provided for her in the Console Room. "I hope he'll be here soon. I mean, you're fine company and all, but you're still just a machine."

The TARDIS huffed, shutting down the lights for the room.

"Come on, Sexy," Eva sighed. "I didn't mean it like that. You're sentient and all, but I can't actually _talk_ to you, can I? Are you ignoring me?" she added when the TARDIS didn't respond. "Please don't ignore me. Sexy? Gosh, you're so childish sometimes."

The TARDIS's lights flashed, and Eva raised her brow.

" _Sure_ you're not," she retorted. "And then you wonder where he gets it from."

Out of all the possible reactions, the last thing Eva expected was the TARDIS making her couch disappear, sending her falling to the floor.

"Are you serious?" she asked, nearing the console. "Alright, fine, I'm sorry. You're a very mature sentient time machine." The TARDIS hummed happily before Eva added under her breath, "Who wouldn't talk to me and made my chair disappear because I hurt her feelings – Ow!" she called out when the TARDIS sent a shock from the console to her hand. "Now, that was uncalled for!"

The TARDIS flashed again, ready to reply as best as she could, before the two were stopped by the sounds of commotion outside the door.

"Doctor?" a female asked. "Doctor?"

"Yes, what is it?" a second, male voice replied. "What do you want?"

"Sorry," the first voice said, "But you're about to make a very big mistake."

"It's Clara!" Eva whispered. "Or one of her echoes, at least. And if this is Clara, then that means…"

The TARDIS doors opened and closed, an elderly man and a young woman rushing in.

"Come on, Grandfather!" the woman called out. "We need to go."

"Right away, dear," the man replied, moving towards the console only to pause at the sight of Eva.

They looked at one another, and Eva couldn't breathe for a moment as she stared at him. Even though he looked old, and despite the fact that she knew he was around two hundred years old, she couldn't help but be amazed at how young he was.

How young _his eyes_ were.

The man muttered something and though Eva was too far away to hear, she was the first of the three to snap back, her hand reaching out and closing the door. The man was next, moving closer to the console and tapping it lightly.

"You're not bad either, Old Girl," he muttered, and Eva's cheeks turned pink as she remembered Idris' words from years ago.

 _"I was already a museum piece, when you were young, and the first time you walked through my doors, you said –"_

 _"I said, 'You are the most beautiful thing I had ever known'."_

 _"Then, you looked away from Eva, patted my console, told me I wasn't bad either and called me 'Old Girl'."_

"Grandfather?" the woman asked as the Doctor pulled a few levers, sending the TARDIS flying into the Time Vortex. "Who's she?"

"Right, we need to ask," the Doctor muttered distractedly, looking up at Eva again. "Who ae you?"

"I'm Eva," she told him. "And you?"

"The Doctor," he replied.

Eva smiled playfully as she asked, "Doctor who?"

"Eva who?"

"Fair enough," she shrugged, turning to the woman. "And you are?"

The woman hesitated for a moment, and the Doctor sighed.

"Pick a name, and be ready to stick to it," he instructed, and the woman nodded.

"Susan," she said with a small smile. "I'm Susan."

"Nice to meet you, Susan," Eva said. "So, what are the two of you doing, stealing a TA- a TT capsule?"

"TARDIS, I call them," Susan said. "It stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space."

"TARDIS, then," Eva corrected with a smile. "Which you're stealing."

"Borrowing," the Doctor corrected. "Can't very well steal it with the owner inside, can we? Don't worry," he added, "We'll return it soon enough."

"I never said she was mine," Eva noted, leaning against the console.

At that, the Doctor paused. "Whose is it, then?" he questioned.

"Depends," Eva shrugged.

"On what?"

"On whether you're borrowing or stealing."

Susan and the Doctor exchanged a surprised look before smiling at her.

"Oh, I think I like you," the Doctor said.

"Don't you ever forget it," Eva retorted, looking up in alarm as the Cloister Bell started ringing. "Looks like they're coming after us," she muttered. "Give me a sec."

She reached forwards, pressing a couple of buttons and pulling a level, sending all three of them flying around the Console Room as the TARDIS flew away.

"Are you insane?" the Doctor asked. "Who taught you to drive a TARDIS?"

"I never said anybody taught me."

"Then how do you know to fly one?"

"I never said I did."

The Doctor's eyes widened as he stumbled forwards, undoing Eva's work and looking at the machine's stats.

"You broke something," he muttered.

"I'm sure it was nothing important," Eva shrugged. "You'll do fine without it. Just walk into the room like you own it, and everybody else will play along."

"That's not how it works!"

"Course it does," Eva replied, looking down as her necklace started glowing. "Looks like I've got to go now. See you soon!"

"Wait!" Susan called out. "Where are you going?"

"No idea," Eva smiled brightly. "Exciting, isn't it?"

As the light carried her away, Eva had only a single thought in her mind.

 _God, I've missed this._

 **EMH**

Eva rushed through the woods, the adrenaline flowing through her body and taking over. She wasn't aware of the deep cut in her leg, nor did she notice the cuts in her fingers from the intense use of her bow.

She arrived a month earlier, and was shocked by the sheer number of soldiers around her. Looking down at her jeans and t-shirt, she realized she needed to change quickly and stole a set of clothes from one of the smaller soldiers nearby. She found the bow outside the camp and held on to it, knowing that she wouldn't be very valuable with any other weapon.

It wasn't until a few days later that she was found and captured. As soon as her captors heard her accent, they led her to their General – no other than George Washington himself.

"He had clearly been attempting an assassination on you," the man who brought her in said, and Eva had to fight to not roll her eyes at the fact that she was mistaken as a man.

She had to admit, with the uniform a few sizes too big and especially after her haircut, it was possible, but as soon as someone took the time to look, they should have noticed. In time of war, however, nobody looked.

"I have not!" she declared. "And I told you already – I'm not fighting for the British."

"Why else would you have uniform that aren't your size?"

"Have you seen my size?" Eva questioned. "Nobody has the money to spend on sewing it this small. Gave me the smallest they could find and told me to get along with it."

"And the bow?"

"My own," Eva said. "I have been trained with it, and my aim is by far better with it than with a gun."

"Please," the man huffed. "You're so small you can barely carry it around, let alone _shoot_ with it –"

"Enough," Washington said, making both of them look at the ground silently. "What is your name, soldier?"

"Miller, sir," Eva replied.

"I hope you realize your story is one that is not easy to believe, Miller."

 _That must be because it's not true,_ Eva thought, looking up at the intimidating man. If she allowed the History student within her to take control, she would have so many questions for him, but she knew that would be a bad idea. Right now, she needed food and shelter until the Doctor would arrive – and that could be days away or years away, with the same probability.

"I know," she said. "And I know you have no reason to believe me, but I support the cause, and will remain as such regardless of your opinion."

"He's obviously lying –"

"Quiet, Benham," Washington said, not taking his eyes off Eva for a moment. "You have one shot to prove to me I am right in trusting you. If I get the smallest hint that you are here to sabotage, you will not get a second chance. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good," Washington nodded. "Take him away from here."

Now, exactly four weeks after her initial meeting with the General, Eva pushed all of her strength towards getting to him. Her unit, which never trusted her for a moment, disappeared on her, and she knew that staying close to the General and proving her worth to him is the only thing that will convince him she had nothing to do with the attack on their camp.

She just hoped she'll get there in time.

 **EMH**

Unbeknown to Eva, not far from where she was a blue box faded into existence. The owner of said box walked out, only to throw himself down as a bullet narrowly missed him.

He had his doubts when he saw the date and place he arrived to – January 2nd, 1777, right in the middle of the Battle of the Assunpink Creek – but he knew that if Eva told him to be here, it must be important.

"I'm friendly!" he called out, raising his hands to the air. "Please, don't shoot."

"Who are you?" the man closest to him asked, aiming his gun at the Doctor's head, and his eyes widened when he finally recognized him.

"Oh," he said, doing the quick math in his head. The Ball Eva and he went to after they dropped the Ponds off for their honeymoon was in 1779, which means that this must be the first time this man meets him. "You're George Washington!"

"Yes, I am," the man said. "Now, who the hell are you?"

"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor said, standing up. "Pleasure to meet you – well, for you, at least. Have you seen Eva?" he added. "About this high, brown hair in varying lengths, locket around her neck that she never takes off?"

"This is a warzone," Washington replied sharply. "There's no place for women here. Now, how did you get here? Are you with the British?"

"No, no!" the Doctor quickly said. "Why would I be with the British? I mean, I'm not even British!"

"Your accent says otherwise."

"Translation Matrix," the Doctor waved it off. "You wouldn't understand. By the way, do you happen to know what year it is? I think I might've broke my watch."

"British incoming!" another man called out, and Washington fixed the Doctor with one last glare.

"If you even think of doing anything stupid…" he warned, letting the threat hang in the air.

"Stupid?" the Doctor asked. "Me? Plea- Ah!" he called out as another bullet passed nearby. "I'll just stay here, then," he muttered, crouching closer to the TARDIS. "She better have an explanation for _that_ ," he muttered, looking around.

It seemed like the Americans were having the upper hand in this one, outnumbering the group that attacked them two to one. However, as people fell on both sides it was getting harder to see who attacked who, and the Doctor's hearts skipped a beat when he saw a man in a red coat standing between the trees, aiming it at the General's back.

 _This couldn't happen,_ he thought to himself. _George Washington can't die! Not here or now, he can't!_

"Watch out!" he called out, but Washington turned around a moment too late.

The British soldier fired, and a small figure jumped in front of Washington, taking the bullet that was aimed at him. Washington fired once, making the British soldier fall dead, before kneeling next to the figure as his comrades took care of the remaining British soldiers.

"What the hell did you think?" the Doctor heard him ask angrily, and the figure muttered something back. "Stay with me, son. Come on, Miller, stay with me."

At the sound of the name, the Doctor's head popped up and he rushed towards the two, his eyes focusing on the person who jumped in front of Washington.

 _Eva._

"Help me," he told the General. "We need to get to my box."

"Are you out of your mind?" Washington asked.

"Sir, I promise I'll explain everything, but we have to get her to the box!"

Washington paused, staring at the Doctor with shock. " _Her_?" he asked.

"I'll explain in the box," the Doctor promised again and Washington nodded once before reaching down, lifting Eva over his shoulder. "Come on."

The Doctor ran the short distance to the TARDIS faster than he ever had before in his life, taking a deep breath in relief once they reached the cover of his ship.

"What are you doing?" Washington asked as he fumbled with the keys. "We're sitting ducks out here!"

"The TARDIS's shields would protect us," the Doctor said, finally opening the door and rushing in, taking Eva from Washington's hands as he did. "Old Girl, can you give me Eva's stats, please?" he asked, looking at the scanner as he laid Eva on the floor.

He didn't have time to take her to the med bay and, even if he did, it wouldn't have made a difference. Eva had already stopped breathing, and now the only thing he could do was to make sure she'll wake up in a calm environment.

"Eighty two percent," he muttered, trying to think where she could come from.

Before they went to Utopia, she was eighty _three_ percent human, but Jack told him before that she jumped to a past version of him after leaving Cardiff. That meant he had seen her like this before, but he simply didn't seem to remember _when_.

The only time he remembered that Eva had hair as short as this was…

"Oh," he sighed. "Well, that's not good at all." He looked back, studying Washington as the human took in the sight of the ship. "Anything to say?" he asked.

"A female soldier who shoots a bow and arrow better than any man I've met and a blue box that's bigger on the inside," he muttered. "Not sure if I'm dreaming this, but if I'm not then I'm impressed."

"Count yourself impressed, then," the Doctor said. "I'm the Doctor and this is Eva."

"Why did she lie about her gender?" Washington asked, stepping deeper into the room and glancing at the girl who laid at their feet.

"Well, I'm guessing she didn't actually _lie_ ," the Doctor shrugged. "She simply didn't correct you when you assumed she was a man. Her last name is Miller, so she told you the truth about that."

"She just never mentioned her first name."

"You just never _asked_ about her first name," the Doctor noted, looking at the scanner again. "Okay, she's about to do something scary, any moment now, so it's very important that you don't be scared. And don't try to shoot her. That will only complicate things."

"Do something?" Washington asked. "I'm sorry to be the one to inform you of this, Doctor, but she's dead. The bullet lodged into her chest, there isn't anything we can do."

"You'd be surprised," the Doctor muttered.

"Surprised?" Washington questioned. "Doctor, after what I've seen today I doubt anything will surprise me again."

As if hearing his words, Eva sat up with a gasp, making Washington jump up and away from her, staring at her with a look of pure shock on his face.

"Except that," he said dryly. "I'm fairly certain I'm surprised at that."

"General," Eva said, a pained smile crossing her face as she looked up at him. "I'm glad to see you're all right."

Washington shook his head as he stepped forward, reaching out an arm and helping Eva stand up.

"You took a bullet and died for me today, girl," he said. "Call me George."

Eva let out a small smile. "I'm Eva."

"Okay," the Doctor said, rushing towards the two of them and pulling Eva out of Washington's grasp. He hugged her for a moment, relief taking over before pecking her lips and resuming. "Now that we sorted this out – what the bloody hell were you thinking?!"


	19. Past

Usually, Eva didn't mind arriving somewhere before the Doctor did. It meant that she had time to relax, that she didn't have to constantly worry for her life and that she could just calm down, and do whatever she wanted to do – as long as she managed to find a place to stay in, of course.

But to arrive early the third time in a row after two and a half years with the Master was finally starting to grate on her nerves.

She found a fine job to help her get along in 1990, the year she arrived to. It wasn't anything big – just being the night nanny of a small Children's Home in Gloucester – but it meant free food and a place to stay during the day, when she was off-shift.

It was also one of the hardest jobs she ever took upon herself, and it only became even more so when one of the younger boys took an extra liking to her, all but adopting her as his mum.

"Rupert!" she scolded fondly one night, about three weeks after she had arrived, when she did her tour of the corridors to hear sounds coming out of his room and walked in to see him looking out the window. "You're supposed to be in bed."

"I had a nightmare," Rupert said, backing away from the window.

"Then you should have come straight to me," Eva said. "Not stay up even longer."

"Sorry, Ma…"

Eva sighed, crouching next to the boy and lifting his chin so that he could look at her. "You know you shouldn't call me that, right?" she asked. "I'm not angry, but I won't stay here long. It was always meant to be just a temporary thing, and I don't want you to be hurt when I leave."

"You could take me with you," Rupert muttered.

"No, I couldn't," Eva replied. "I travel too much. It's not safe for a little boy to come with me."

"Will you at least come visit?" Rupert asked hopefully, and Eva couldn't stay stoic at the sight of those big, hopeful eyes.

"Yes," she said, hoping that she will be able to keep her promise. "I'll come visit."

The two of them turned around at the sound of someone nearing the room. There should be no one around other than Reg, and he was known for avoiding the upstairs floors for as long as he could. Eva instinctively pushed Rupert behind her as the door opened, before staring in shock at the woman who looked back at her.

"Eva?" she asked in disbelief, looking between the nanny and the boy.

"Clara?" Eva asked, just as surprised before the pieces finally clicked in her head.

Clara Oswald and Rupert Pink in a Children's Home meant that the Twelfth Doctor was in the building as well, that this was the beginning of 'Listen', and that she had irrecoverably imprinted herself on Danny Pink as his mother.

 _Well,_ she mused to herself, _at least things can't get any more complicated than that._

"What are you doing here?" Clara asked.

"Messing things up, apparently," Eva muttered. "Have you met Rupert, yet?"

"She's the one I spoke to from the window," Rupert said. "Do you know her?"

"Yeah, I do," Eva sighed. "Now, back to bed. You need to sleep."

"Eva," Clara started slowly. "Please, tell me that this isn't…"

"It is," Eva replied. "That's why I'm messing things up. You," she added, turning back to Rupert. "Bed, now."

Rupert fidgeted uncomfortably and Clara raised a brow. "Do you think that there's something underneath it?"

Rupert glanced at Eva, as if he was unwilling to admit it and she sighed.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" she asked. "It's okay to think stuff like that."

"Happens to everyone," Clara added. "That's just how people think at night."

"Why?"

"Did you have a dream?" Clara asked, sending Eva a meaningful glance. "A hand grabbing your foot? You have, haven't you? You've had that exact dream."

"How did you know?" Rupert whispered.

"Do you know why dreams are called dreams, Rup?" Eva asked quietly, pulling the boy closer to her. "Because they're not real."

"If they were, they wouldn't need a name," Clara added.

"Would you like us to check under your bed?" Eva offered, and Rupert nodded, making the two women move closer to the bed. "Come on, Clara. See anything?"

"Nothing interesting," Clara replied, glancing at Rupert. "Do you know what's under there?"

"What?" Rupert asked, pulling his legs closer to his chest.

"Me!"

She rolled under the bed and Eva looked at Rupert before smiling and joining her.

"Come on," she said. "It's a lot more fun than it looks."

Rupert hesitantly joined, and Eva held out her hand for him to grasp.

"See?" Clara asked. "Nobody here, except us."

"Sometimes I hear noises," Rupert said.

"It's a house full of people," Clara said. "Of course you hear noises."

"They're all asleep," Rupert insisted.

"I'm not," Eva noted.

"But I know what you sound like," Rupert said. "You always open the door to make sure I'm okay. These noises are different."

"That's because they're all dreaming," Clara told him.

"Can you hear dreams?" Rupert questioned.

"If you're clever enough," Clara told him. "But they can't harm you. You know, sometimes we think there's something behind us. And the space under your bed is what's behind you at night. Simple as that."

"You see?" Eva asked, smiling at the boy. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

The bed creaked, sagging down as if someone sat on it. Eva and Clara exchanged worried looks as Rupert started breathing faster in fear.

"Who else is in this room?" Clara whispered.

"Nobody," Eva replied. "Each of the kids got a room of their own."

"Someone must have come in," Clara said.

"Nobody came in," Rupert breathed out.

Eva took a deep breath before rolling back out from under the bed and standing up, Clara and Rupert joining her to look at the figure who sat on Rupert's bed under the blanket.

"It's past bedtime," Eva said in her most confident voice. "You should be in bed. Come out now."

"Who's this?" Clara asked, glancing at Rupert worriedly when the figure didn't move. "This is a friend of yours playing a game. Playing a trick, are you, hey? A little trick on Rupert here?"

The figure sat up taller and Eva swallowed hard.

"One last chance," she said. "Get out now and Mrs. Karson won't hear about this tomorrow."

The figure didn't react and Eva reached out her hand, ready to pull the blanket off when the light suddenly turned on and she jumped. She turned around, letting out a sigh of relief when she saw the Doctor sitting on Rupert's chair.

"Where is he?" he asked, looking through the pages of a book.

"Oh, you idiot," Eva breathed out, feeling her heart going back to normal as she moved to make sure Rupert was all right.

"Doctor?" Clara asked, confused.

"I can't find him," the Doctor said. "Can you find him?"

"Find who?"

"Wally."

" _Wally_?"

"He's nowhere in this book," the Doctor explained, waving the book in his hand.

"It's not a Where's Wally one," Rupert told him.

"Well, how would you know?" the Doctor questioned. "Maybe you just haven't found him yet."

"He's not in every book, Doctor," Eva said.

"Really?" The Doctor frowned. "Well, why didn't you say anything earlier? That's a few years of my life I'll be needing back. Are you scared?" he added, turning back to Rupert. "The thing on the bed, whatever it is, look at it. Does it scare you?"

"Yes," Rupert admitted quietly.

"Well, that's good," the Doctor said, making Rupert look up in surprise. "Want to know why that's good?"

"Why?"

"Let me tell you about scared," the Doctor said, moving closer to the boy. "Your heart is beating so hard, I can feel it through your hands," he explained, holding Rupert's hands for emphasis. "There's so much blood and oxygen pumping through your brain, it's like rocket fuel! Right now, you could run _faster_ and you could fight _harder_ , you could jump _higher_ than ever in your life. And you are so alert, it's like you can slow down time.

"What's wrong with scared?" he asked, making Eva smile softly. "Scared is a superpower. It's _your_ superpower. There is danger in this room and guess what? It's you. Do you feel it?" he asked, and Rupert nodded. "Do you think _he_ feels it? Do you think he's _scared_? Nah. Loser. Turn your back on him," he instructed.

"What?" Rupert asked, confused.

"Yeah, turn your back on him," the Doctor said, sending Eva a meaningful glance as she grabbed Rupert's hand, directing him towards the window and away from the figure on the bed. "Come on."

"You too, Clara," Eva said, trying her best to keep her voice even. "Now."

"Don't look back," the Doctor said when Rupert started turning his head towards the figure. "Lovely view out this window."

"Yeah," Clara agreed. "Come and see all the… dark."

"The deep and lovely dark," the Doctor said. "We'd never see the stars without it, don't you agree, Eva?"

"Of course," Eva said, holding Rupert's hand just the tiniest bit tighter.

"Now," the Doctor went on, "There are two possibilities. Possibility one, it's just one of your friends standing there, and he's playing a joke on you. Possibility two… it isn't."

"That's really relaxing," Eva muttered.

"So, plan?" Clara asked shakily. "Plans are good."

The Doctor thought for a moment before speaking. "You on the bed, I'm talking to you now," he said. "Go in peace. We won't look. Just go. If all you want to do is stay hidden, it's okay. Just leave."

There was silence for a moment and Clara swallowed hard. "Is it gone?"

"Not yet," Eva said.

"Don't look round," the Doctor said.

"I can't hear anything," Rupert told them.

"I know you can't, honey, but trust me, okay?" Eva asked. "Don't look around until I tell you to. Can you do that, for me?"

"O-Okay."

"Good," Eva nodded. "Just a bit longer…"

"Don't look at the reflection," the Doctor ordered as the figure pulled away the blanket.

"What is it?" Rupert asked.

"Nothing to be afraid of," Eva promised, but the Doctor seemed to disagree.

"Imagine a thing that must never be seen," he said. "What would it do if you saw it?"

"I don't know."

"Neither do I."

"Doctor, you're not helping," Eva scolded quietly. "Close your eyes."

"What?" Rupert asked, turning to look at her.

"Close your eyes," the Doctor said in understanding, following Eva's lead and closing his eyes. "You too, Clara. Give it what it wants. Prove to it that you're not going to look at it. Make a promise. A promise you're never going to look at it."

"I promise," Eva whispered, pulling Rupert closer.

"I promise never to look," Rupert repeated, leaning in towards her.

"The breath on the back of your neck, like your hair's standing on end," the Doctor said. "That means, don't look round."

The door slammed shut and Eva let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding.

"Gone," Clara breathed out.

"Gone," the Doctor agreed, while Rupert looked around the room sadly.

"He took my bedspread."

"Oh, the human race," the Doctor muttered, rolling his eyes. "You're never happy, are you?"

"Rude!" Eva scolded, smacking his arm slightly. "Also, hi, as normal people say."

"Hello," the Doctor replied. "Where did you come from? Not sure when I last saw you with your hair this short."

"Just came from 1777," Eva replied.

"Oh, I do remember that," the Doctor nodded. "George Washington, wasn't it?"

"Yes," Eva nodded. "Lovely fella. And a lovely wife on him, too."

"Oh, don't start this again –"

"Am I safe now?" Rupert asked abruptly, sitting back down on his bed.

"Nobody's safe, especially not at night in the dark," the Doctor replied, turning to look at him. "Anything can get you. And all the way up here, you're up here all alone –"

Clara slapped the back of the Doctor's head, making him turn around in surprise.

"What was that for?"

"For not helping," Eva said. "Now, sit down."

"Shut up," Clara told him as she pulled out a box of plastic soldiers. "Leave this to me. These yours?" she asked Rupert.

"They're the Home's," Rupert muttered.

"They're yours now," Clara told him.

"People don't need to be lied to," the Doctor interrupted.

"People don't need to be scared by a big grey-haired stick insect, but here you are. Stay still, shut up. See what I'm doing?" she added softly, turning back to Rupert as she placed the soldiers around his bed. "This is your army."

"Plastic army."

"Shut up," Eva said, a small smile on her face as she looked at Clara interact with Rupert, ignoring Eva and the Doctor completely.

"And they're going to guard under your bed," she said. "You see this one? This is the boss one, the colonel. He's going to keep a special eye out."

"It's broken, that one," Rupert said sullenly. "It doesn't have a gun."

"That's why he's the boss," Clara explained. "A soldier so brave he doesn't need a gun. He can keep the whole world safe. What shall we call him?"

"Dan," Rupert replied, taking the soldier from her hand.

Clara blinked in surprise, thinking of the ex-soldier Danny Pink that she left in a restaurant in the middle of their date. "Sorry?"

"Dan, the soldier man," Rupert said. "That's what I call him."

"Good," Clara somehow managed to force out. "Good name."

"Yeah," Rupert smiled, turning to look at Eva. "Would you read me a story? You read the best stories."

"Of course I will," Eva said with a smile, moving closer to Rupert only for the Doctor to get there first and place two fingers on the boy's forehead.

"Once upon a time," he said, and the boy fell on the bed, fast asleep. "The end. Dad skills," he added with a small smile, making Eva frown.

"If you made him forget about me I will make you regenerate right here and now."

 **EMH**

"So," Clara said later, when they were back in the TARDIS, "Is it possible we've just saved that kid from another kid in a bedspread?"

"More than I'd like to admit considering I'm the one who's job is to be in charge of them," Eva replied.

"The bigger question is, why did we end up with him, and not you?" the Doctor asked.

"I got distracted," Clara shrugged.

"But why that particular boy?" the Doctor went on. "You don't have any… you don't have any kind of connection with him, do you?"

"No," Clara said just a bit too quickly, and Eva sighed. "No, no, no. Of course not. Why do you ask?"

"The TARDIS was slaved to your timeline," the Doctor explained. "Theoretically, there should have been some connection."

"Couldn't it…" Clara started. "Couldn't it have been anything to do with Eva?"

"Not how it works." Eva was the one to reply this time, sending Clara a meaningful look. "I arrived there because that's you'd have shown up, not the other way around. Trust me, if it was my life would have been that much simpler."

"Well, er…" Clara said slowly. "Will he remember any of that?"

"Scrambled his memory," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "Gave him a big old dream about being Dan the soldier man. And, before you try to kill me, I didn't make him forget about you," he added, turning to Eva.

"Good," she replied, turning to look at Clara and pausing as she saw the other woman was close to crying.

She moved closer and the Doctor followed, looking as if the thought of someone crying was far beyond what he was capable of handling.

"Are you okay?" he asked, and it was clear to everyone in the room that he had no idea how to go on if she replied with the negative.

"Doctor," Clara said instead, "I am sorry to ask, and, you know, I realise this is probably against the laws of time, or something… Er, could you do me a favour?"

Minutes later, the Doctor dropped Clara off to resume her date from the moment she walked out of the restaurant's doors, and the Time Lord and Time Jumper were left alone. A small smile crossed the Doctor's face as he walked in, moving to stand closer to Eva.

"So," he said. "A night nanny?"

"Shut up," Eva grumbled. "It was a good job. Three meals a day, a place to sleep and a nice wage at the end of the week. You and I both know I had to get along with less."

"You were fine," the Doctor dismissed. "Found a girl in need of a babysitter or a Queen to make you her ward or join the American Revolution Army – still not okay with that, by the way. But you're always fine, it's just the way you get out of trouble amuses me."

"I'm not always fine," Eva said. "I… I don't think I've been fine for a long time now."

The Doctor frowned in confusion, trying to understand Eva's words before understanding dawned on him. The last time she saw him was in his eleventh body, right after the whole ordeal with Solomon and the dinosaurs – the first time she met him. For her, it was right after he and Susan stole the TARDIS from Gallifrey – the first time he met her.

And, judging by the length of her hair and her overall nervousness around people, it was right after the Year That Never Was and her time with the Master.

"We're going to have to talk about it eventually, you know," he said quietly. "I… I'm sorry that you had to go through all of this, but we need to talk about…"

"About what?" Eva asked. "There's nothing to talk about. It's over. It's behind us."

The Doctor sighed, taking a deep breath as he tried to catch Eva's gaze, only for her to look away from him. Taking a step forward, he pulled Eva into a hug, trying not to pay attention to how she tensed at his touch.

"It wasn't your fault, you know," he said. "You couldn't have changed what happened. And you still tried to."

"It's not that the Year happened," Eva replied. "It's… it's what I did during the Year. The deal I made with the Master."

"Making him stop killing your dad?" the Doctor questioned. "Allowing Martha's family to have time together? Making life on the Valliant more bearable for all the Master's prisoners, are you really apologizing for that?"

"No," Eva said quietly. "I'm apologizing because you paid the price for it."

"If I had the choice, I would have chosen to pay the price for it anyway," the Doctor said. "You know that."

"He never hurt me. I… I'd have rather him hurt me than hurt you."

"But he'll never hurt you," the Doctor replied. "You're his friend, and he saw you as such until the last moment."

"Spoilers," Eva whispered, leaning closer to him as he wrapped his arms tighter around her.

"You never cared much for spoilers anyway."


	20. Future

"Could you not do this right now?" Eva asked as the Doctor flew the TARDIS away, picking up a man from the end of the universe before travelling back to Clara. "She's out on a date. Let her have fun."

"We are having fun," the Doctor said, confused.

"Let her have fun _out on the date_ ," Eva sighed, looking at him in disbelief.

"She can go on dates all of the time," the Doctor dismissed. "This… this is special."

"Doctor…"

"It'll just be a few moments," the Doctor said as he landed the TARDIS inside the restaurant's kitchen, sending the man they collected – Orson _Pink_ , apparently – out to get Clara before turning back to Eva. "He wouldn't even notice she was ever gone."

"How would you feel if I just upped and left in the middle of a date?" Eva questioned, following the Doctor as he moved to stand in the space under the console. "If we were sitting in a restaurant and I just… jumped away or something?"

"Trust me," the Doctor muttered with a sigh, "You jumped away in the middle of things _far_ more important than a date."

Eva's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to question the Doctor about what he had just said, only to be interrupted by Orson walking back into the TARDIS, Clara following closely by, not yet understanding that the man in the spacesuit wasn't the Doctor.

"I am trying to have a date," she said. "A real life, inter-human actual date! It's a normal nice, everyday, meeting-up sort of thing. And I would just like to know, is there any other way you can make this anymore surreal than it already is?"

Orson took off his helmet and Eva barely held back a snort of laughter as Clara stared I shock at the man who was a near-exact replica of her date tonight.

"Hello," he said awkwardly, more than aware than Clara was staring at him with shock.

"Ah, Clara!" the Doctor cut in, running back up. "Well done, you found her. Now this is really a bit strange…"

"Danny?" Clara whispered in shock.

"What's gone wrong with her face?" the Doctor asked Eva, taking a closer look at Clara. "It's all eyes! Why are you all eyes? Get them under control."

"Er, who's Danny?" Orson asked, confused.

"This is Colonel Orson Pink," Eva cut in, starting to explain things to Clara when it was clear the Doctor wasn't about to, "From about a hundred years in the future. From your point of view, at least."

"Orson _Pink_?" Clara asked.

"Yeah, I laughed too," the Doctor smiled.

"Rude!" Eva muttered.

"Sorry." The smile still on the Doctor's face made Eva doubt the sincerity of his words. "Do you have any connection with him?"

"Connection?"

"Yes, maybe you're like a distant relative or something?"

"How…" Clara stammered. "How would I know?"

"That's… actually a fair point, you know," Eva commented.

"Right," the Doctor said, seeming to realize that for the first time before turning to Orson. "Okay, well, do you have any old family photographs of her? You know, probably quite old and really fat-looking?"

"Rude!"

"I don't," Orson said, shaking his head slightly.

Clara reached out, grabbing the Doctor and Eva and pulling them away from Orson, keeping her eyes on him at all times

"How did you find him?" she whispered.

"Well, you left a trace in the TARDIS telepathic circuits," the Doctor explained. "I fired them up again and the Tardis brought me straight to him. So he is something to do with your timeline."

"Okay…"

"And," by this point, the Doctor was far beyond ecstatic, "You'll never guess where I found him."

 **EMH**

Eva sat next to Clara as the two of them looked out of the window of Orson's time capsule, taking in the sight of the red terrain outside the window. Any other time, Eva might have stopped to appreciate just how beautiful the area was, but the last time she's been this far into the future was still far too fresh in her mind for her to feel comfortable.

"Where are we?" Clara asked.

"The end of the road," the Doctor replied. "This is it, the end of everything. The last planet."

"The end of the universe?"

 _"The year one hundred trillion? That's impossible."_

 _"Why? What happens then?"_

 _"We're going to the end of the universe."_

"The TARDIS isn't supposed to come this far," the Doctor said, shaking Eva out of the memory, "But some idiot turned the safeguards off."

"By idiot, he means him," Eva supplied.

"Shh," the Doctor said. "Listen."

"To what?" Clara asked, confused.

"Nothing," the Doctor replied. "There's nothing to hear. There's nothing anywhere. Not a breath, not a slither, not a click or a tick. All the clocks have stopped. This is the silence at the end of time."

"Right," Eva muttered as Clara took another glace at Orson. "Not creepy at all, Eyebrows."

"Eyebrows?" the Doctor asked.

"Suits you," Eva shrugged.

"Then how did he get here?" Clara questioned, still looking at Orson. "If he's from a hundred years in my future…"

"Pioneer time traveller," the Doctor explained, pulling out his sonic screwdriver and pointing it at one of the screens nearby, making the news report of Orson's trip to come out. "Rode the first of the great time shots. They were supposed to fire him into the middle of the next week."

"What happened?" Clara asked.

"He went a bit far," Eva replied with a grimace. She knew better than anyone else how it felt to be thrown into a time you had nothing in.

" _A bit_?"

"A big bit."

"Look at him now," the Doctor said. "Robinson Crusoe at the end of time itself. The last man standing in the universe. I always thought that would be me."

"Of course you did," Eva sighed while Clara frowned.

"It's not a competition," the teacher said.

"I know it's not a competition," the Doctor replied, rolling his eyes. "Course it isn't. Still time, though."

"Doctor!"

"He looks like he's packing," Clara noted.

"He's been stranded for six months, just met a time traveller," the Doctor deadpanned. "Of course he's packing."

"You can do it, then?" Orson asked, coming through the door as if summoned by their words. "You can get me home?"

"I just showed you, didn't I?" the Doctor asked. "A test flight to a restaurant."

"Yes, but to my family," Orson clarified, "To my own time?"

"We'll get you home, Orson," Eva promised. "Don't worry."

Orson didn't look entirely convinced, looking at Clara worryingly. "Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, fine," Clara quickly said. "I'm fine."

"Do I know you?"

"No. _Nope_."

"Is she doing the all eyes thing?" the Doctor asked, looking between the two of them. "It's because her face is so wide. She needs three mirrors."

"Rude!" Eva called out, smacking the back of the Doctor's head. "Seriously, I've forgotten how rude you are."

"Maybe you should see me more, then."

Even though she knew the Doctor joked, Eva couldn't help but freeze at his words.

She didn't _choose_ this. She had no control where she ended up or how long she'll be there before the Doctor showed up. She didn't _ask_ to spend three weeks in the 1990s. She didn't _plan_ on joining the American Revolution Army.

She never wanted to be stuck with the Master, pretending to be Eva Saxon for eighteen months.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said, seeming to understand the effect his words had. "I shouldn't have said that."

"Don't mention it," Eva replied. "Please, just… don't mention it."

"Doctor," Clara started, but he quickly cut her off.

"We can't leave immediately, though. The TARDIS needs to recharge."

As he expected, the words caught everyone other than Eva by surprise.

"Sorry. What?" Clara asked.

"Overnight, that should do it, shouldn't it, Clara, Eva?"

"One night should do," Eva nodded.

"O-Overnight?" Orson asked.

"One more night," the Doctor said, closely studying the man's reactions. "That's… that's not a problem, is it?"

"No," Orson said, looking like he meant the exact opposite. "No, no problem."

"It's a shame, isn't it?" Eva sighed, sharing a knowing glance with the Doctor.

"What's a shame?" Orson asked, confused.

"There's only four people left in the universe," she replied, "And you're lying to the other three."

"It was the first thing I noticed when I stepped in here," the Doctor said. "Eva saw it and you must have seen it, too, Clara. You've got eyes out to here."

"Seen what?" Clara asked, not understanding.

"The universe is dead," the Doctor said. "Everything that ever was is dead and gone. There's nothing beyond this door but nothingness for ever…" he trailed off slightly as they all looked at the door in question, before adding, "So why is it locked?"

"Please, don't make me spend another night here," Orson quickly said.

"Afraid of the dark?" the Doctor asked, making Orson swallow nervously. "But the dark is empty now."

"No," Orson said darkly, making chills run down Eva's spine. "No, it isn't."

 **EMH**

Hours later, Eva, Clara and the Doctor sat in the capsule, waiting. Clara had escorted Orson into the TARDIS some time ago, and was now staring out the window and trying to hide how bored she was.

"What are we doing?" she asked.

"Waiting," Eva replied.

"For what?" Clara asked. "For _who_? If everybody in the universe is dead, then there's nobody out there."

"That's one way of looking at it," the Doctor muttered.

"What's the other?" Clara asked, frowning in confusion.

"That's a hell of a lot of ghosts."

The lights around them dimmed, making all of them look up.

"Do you have your own mood lighting now?" Clara joked. "Because, frankly, the accent is enough."

"Oh, Ten would kill for his own mood lighting," Eva sighed, and the Doctor huffed in annoyance while Clara chuckled

Their amusement, however, was very short-lived as they turned to look at the door to see bright letters written on it.

 _DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR._

"Where did that come from?" Clara asked.

"It's always been there," the Doctor replied. "It's only visible in the night lights."

"But who wrote it?"

"Colonel Pink," the Doctor said simply. "Apparently, at night, he needs a reminder. Six months stranded alone, I suppose it must be tempting."

"What is?"

"Company."

"Okay," Eva said, swallowing hard. "The two of you are freaking me out, and I'm the one who knows what happens."

All three of them jumped at the sound of creaking, and Eva instinctively reached out to grasp the Doctor's hand.

"What's that?" Clara asked, looking around.

"What kind of explanation would you like?"

"A reassuring one would be nice, please," Eva replied shakily.

"Well, the systems are switching to low power," the Doctor said. "There are temperature differentials all over this ship. It's like pipes banging when the heating goes off."

"Always thought there was something in the pipes," Clara muttered.

"Me, too," the Doctor said, a small smile rising on his face before he turned to Clara again, curious. "Who were you having dinner with?"

It seemed as if all of the tension in the room vaporised as Eva let out a short laugh and Clara smiled amusedly.

"Are you making conversation?" she asked.

"I thought that I would give it a try," the Doctor shrugged.

"I told you," she replied. "A date."

"Serious?" the Doctor asked.

"It's a date."

"A serious date?"

"Do I have to bring him to you for approval?" Clara asked.

"Well, I would like to know about his prospects," the Doctor shrugged. "If you like, I can pop ahead and check them out."

Eva and Clara shared a look, both of them knowing that the man who was currently in the TARDIS was more than likely a decedent of Danny.

"Frankly," Clara muttered, "You've already done enough."

Eva jumped again at the sound of a scream, moving closer to the Doctor as he stood up.

"Atmospheric pressure equalising…" he said.

"Or…?" Clara said, sounding like she didn't really want to know the answer.

"Company."

"Why are we doing this?" Clara asked. "Why don't we just go?"

"Because I need to know," the Doctor said.

"Why?" Clara questioned. "About what?"

"Suppose that there are creatures that live to hide. That only show themselves to the very young or the very old, or the mad, or anyone who wouldn't be believed."

"Okay, so –"

"What would those creatures do when everyone was gone?" the Doctor cut her off. "When there was only one man left standing in the universe?"

"What's that?" Clara asked as banging sounds started being heard around them.

"Potentially, the hull cooling," the Doctor said.

"Potentially?" Eva asked.

"Believably." The banging sounds were heard again, this time right from the direction of the door and the Doctor smiled. "Someone knocking."

"You know," Eva said, releasing her hand from the Doctor's grip and stepping back. "I really don't think I'm enjoying this anymore. Never wanted to be in a horror movie, thank you very much, and I think I'll stop now."

"Doctor," Clara said, "You don't actually believe all this, do you? Hiding creatures, things from under the bed…"

" _'What's that in the mirror, or the corner of your eye?'_ " the Doctor quoted. " _'What's that footstep following, but never passing by?'_ "

"Did we come to the end of the universe because of a _nursery rhyme_?"

The banging became more frequent and Eva couldn't help it any longer she turned around, walking into the TARDIS and slamming the doors shut behind her back, making Orson look at her with a raised brow.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Nope!" Eva replied. "Never been the biggest fan of horror films and, sorry, but this looks like the type that ends with people like me dying."

"Are Clara and the Doctor still out there?"

"Clara should come back inside any moment," Eva said.

"And the Doctor?" Orson asked.

"Is an idiot. Sorry."

Just then, Clara rushed in through the doors, immediately heading for the scanner.

"What's happening?" Orson asked.

"He's opening the door."

" _'Perhaps they're all just waiting,'_ " the Doctor went on, " _'Perhaps when we're all dead, out they'll come a-slithering from underneath the bed.'_ "

"Oh, no, no, no," Clara called out when the scanner started flickering, "Not now, come on! Oh! Always when it's important!" she muttered.

The TARDIS shook and Eva looked up in fear.

"What's happening?" Clara asked. "What's that?"

"The alarm," Eva said. "Air shell's breached. Cloister bells should start going off any moment now."

"Stay here," Orson ordered, rushing outside to get the Doctor back into the TARDIS.

Eva looked after him, her eyes wide with shock and fear as her necklace started glowing.

"No," she said determinedly. "Not now, not here, no, no, no!"

Her hand reached out and pulled the locket over her head, and the glowing subsided. Eva started at it for a moment, shocked, before looking up at Clara.

"I…" she said. "I took it off."

"Yeah," Clara said. "You do that sometimes when you don't want to pop off."

"I… I do?"

Clara frowned in confusion, opening her mouth to reply only for both of them to be distracted as Orson walked into the TARDIS, all but carrying the Doctor. Eva immediately rushed forward, helping Orson place the Doctor on one of the chairs and Clara neared them hesitantly.

"Is he okay?" she asked.

"He's out cold," Orson replied. "He'll be fine, though."

Eva frowned, her hand moving up to a cut on the Doctor's temple.

"He's hurt," she muttered. "Something hit him."

"Everything was flying out of that door," Orson shrugged.

"Could've been that," Clara commented, and the man sighed.

"Yeah…"

"What was out there?" Clara questioned as Eva looked the Doctor over, making sure he didn't have any other injuries. "What were you so afraid of?"

"I've been here a long time," Orson shrugged. "My own shadow, probably."

This time, it was Clara's turn to sigh. "Yeah…"

The TARDIS doors shook slightly, making all three of them turn to look at it.

"That's probably just the rest of the air escaping," Orson said.

"You say probably a lot," Clara replied.

This time, the entire TARDIS shook and Eva reached out, grabbing the Doctor and barely keeping him from falling from the chair.

"We are safe?" Orson clarified. "Nothing can get in here, right?"

"The entire hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through these doors," Eva muttered absently. "And, apparently, they tried. And here's the Cloister Bell," she muttered, looking around at the sound.

Clara looked around for a moment before rushing to the Console, standing in front of the telepathic circuits the Doctor used earlier.

"Have you got a plan?" Orson asked.

"Telepathic circuits," Clara said shortly. "I left a trace in them before."

"So?"

"So she can do a thing," Eva replied as Clara placed her fingers inside the circuits.

"What, that's the plan?"

"It's not a plan, it's a thing," Clara muttered.

"Look, the Doctor's out, you don't know how to even start operating this and the last and only time I tried to fly her is the reason she's stuck looking like a Police Box," Eva told him sharply. "Have you got a better idea? Didn't think so," she added before Orson could say anything else.

Clara closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on sending the TARDIS back to her own time but the Doctor wheezed, distracting her and making their flight a lot more jumpy than it would have been otherwise.

"Sorry," she muttered as the TARDIS finally flew away, the familiar whooshing sound feeling the space around them. "Here we go! Come on. Come on!"

The TARDIS came to a bumpy stop, and all three of the looked around at the silence that surrounded them.

"Is that it?" Orson asked.

"I don't know," Clara replied, moving towards the door. "I think so."

"Where are we?"

"Somewhere else. I hope. No, no, no," she added as he stepped forward. "You stay and look after the Doctor."

"You can't go out there by yourself," Orson protested.

"Thing is, my timeline, it keeps on…" she trailed off, not wanting to admit that he was probably related to her. "Orson, you don't want to meet yourself," she finally said, stepping out.

"You really don't," Eva commented from where she sat next to the Doctor, even though she knew that the TARDIS followed the Doctor's timeline this time, and not Danny's or Orson's. "It's really embarrassing."

 **EMH**

The dropped Orson back in his time, and he swore to stay away from time travel from now on. Back in the TARDIS, Eva forced the Doctor to sit down as she looked at his wound, despite his protests that he was completely fine.

She smiled and told him to shut up, pecking him when he tried to protest.

He didn't protest much afterwards.

Once Eva was satisfied with the results, the Doctor took off and dropped Clara outside Danny's house, giving her a chance to make up for the disaster the date had been. Eva insisted that they'd stay until Clara was inside, and after the door opened they saw her pause, glancing back at them for a moment before walking in.

As the two of them walked back into the TARDIS, the Doctor reached out to grab Eva's hand.

"Would you…" he started. "Would you mind… not putting the necklace back on yet? The last time I saw you was with the really young you," he quickly explained, "And I think you could use some time here, in the TARDIS, without jumping."

Eva didn't reply for a long moment, her free had touching her pocket absently to make sure her locket was still there. When she finally spoke, the words she stated were the last thing the Doctor expected to hear.

"It was the first thing he did," she said. "Taking my necklace off. We were still at the end of the universe. You just messed up the TARDIS's controls, and it started glowing. He… he ripped it off my neck."

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said. "I'm sorry you had to go through this."

"I'm not," Eva told him honestly. "I learned a lot during that time – about you, about the Master, about myself… I met Alex. I got to know Lucy, it put me in a position that allowed me to help, and it might not have happened otherwise. It made me grow up."

"Doesn't stop me wishing you didn't have to."

Eva smiled, looking at the Doctor sadly. "I'll put it on," she said. "Don't know if I'll jump away or not, but I'm hoping that won't be for a while. I just… I don't think I'm comfortable with having it off for too long."

 _I keep worrying someone will take it from me,_ she didn't add, but it was clear the Doctor knew her well enough to understand.

"I'm hoping it won't be for a while, too," he said instead of replying to the other half of her sentence, and Eva smiled.

"Join me for tonight?" she asked. "Just for sleeping. I missed you lately, and I…"

"Of course," the Doctor said without hesitation. "My room or yours?"

"Yours," Eva replied. "I think I need to be out of my room for a while before I could stand being in it again."

The Doctor nodded, kissing Eva's cheek as she went to take a shower and change to her pyjamas. Walking away, she couldn't see the look he sent at the scanner, and didn't hear the heavy sigh that came out of his mouth as he flew the TARDIS away.

 **EMH**

Eva ended up spending a week with Twelve before jumping away again.

It was a surprisingly calm week, too, and they only experienced one near-death situation which, Eva had to admit, was quite a feat. Instead, they spent most of the time lounging in the library, each of them sunk into their own book or in the Console Room, Eva talking while the Doctor looked over different parts of the TARDIS.

They also spent an outrageous amount of time snogging on the sofa like a couple of hormonal teenagers, but that was beside the point.

When she did jump away, she had slightly more time to prepare herself than usual. She had just walked out of her room, having taken a shower and changed her clothes, and it was impossible to miss the sad look on the Doctor's face.

"You recognize my clothes, don't you?" she asked, and he nodded sadly. "Which one is it?"

"My second regeneration," he replied.

"Never met this one before," she said thoughtfully.

A pained look crossed the Doctor's eyes. "I'm sorry."

Eva frowned in confusion. "It isn't that bad… is it?" she asked, worried.

The Doctor swallowed hard. "It's worse," he said, just as Eva's necklace started glowing. "I was young back then, and stupid. Please, remember that I didn't actually mean any of it and I… I'm sorry," he repeated.

The light subsided just in time for Eva to see the First Doctor stumbling to the floor of the TARDIS, looking in quite severe pain. She rushed towards him, vaguely noticing the door opening behind her, only to be greeted by hate-filled eyes.

"I told you to go away, didn't I?" he asked angrily. "Well, go away, then! Off you pop, like you always do!"

Eva jumped back and stood up in surprise, swallowing hard before looking around. Ben and Polly rushed into the TARDIS, who closed the doors behind them and started flying away.

"Eva?" Ben asked, shocked. "What are you doing here?"

"Doctor!" Polly called out, seeing the man on the floor. "Quick, help him."

"No, leave him," Ben said heading to the console.

Eva swallowed hard as a golden light started flowing out of the Doctor, stepping back as it engulfed him completely before fading away.

 _The Doctor's first regeneration,_ she realized. _And, for some reason… he hated her._


End file.
